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Purchased   by  the   Hamill   Missionary   Fund. 


BV  2035  .T56  1903 
Thompson,  Augustus  Charles,j 

1812-1901. 
Protestant  missions 


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PROTESTANT    MISSIONS 


PROTESTANT   MISSIONS 


THEIR  RISE  AND  EARLY  PROGRESS 


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y 

A.    C.   THOMPSON,   D.   D. 

AUTHOR    OF     "MORAVIAN    MISSIONS,"    ETC.,    ETC. 


STUDENT  VOLUNTEER  MOVEMENT 
FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

1903. 


-•_/«• 


Copyright  by 
A.  C.  THOMPSON. 

1894. 


THE  CAXTON   PRESS 

NEW  YORK 


PREFACE 


The  experience  of  the  Educational  Department  of  the 
Student  Volunteer  Movement  for  Foreign  Missions  indicates 
that  student  study  classes  greatly  appreciate  those  courses 
in  which  Ufe  is  made  prominent,  either  that  of  the  races  or 
of  the  missionaries  themselves,  with  the  great  mission  fields 
as  their  background.  Missionary  history,  in  order  to  be 
acceptable  to  such  classes,  needs  to  be  linked  to  great  lives 
and  to  needy  peoples.  It  is  because  the  author  of  this  vol- 
ume has  so  well  succeeded  in  sketching  sahent  facts  in  the 
annals  of  Protestant  missions  and  in  connecting  them  with 
heroic  names  that  it  has  been  chosen  for  use  as  a  text-book. 
Yet  for  the  reason  that  so  much  history  is  compressed 
within  such  brief  limits,  it  should  be  used  with  other 
missionary  literature  at  hand  in  order  to  fill  in  the  sketch 
with  color  and  additional  life.  An  old  work  found  in  many 
libraries,  W.  Brown's  "History  of  the  Propagation  of 
Christianity  among  the  Heathen  since  the  Reformation,"  is 
the  best  available  auxiliary  for  this  purpose.  Early  colonial 
history  also  furnishes  excellent  supplementary  material  for 
those  chapters  having  to  do  with  Indian  missions  in  America. 

As  this  volume  was  originally  published  in  1894,  a  few 
changes,  mainly  of  dates  and  statistics,  have  been  made  in 
order  to  make  it  correspond  Avith  facts  at  the  beginning  of 
the  twentieth  century. 


CONTENTS 


I.  Period  of  the  Reformation.  Pages  3-21. 

Limited  Views  —  Sixteenth  Century  —  Unfavorable  Conditions, 
Political  and  Financial  —  No  Aggressive  Sentiment  —  Mis- 
taken Eschatology  —  First  Movements  —  Colony  in  Brazil 

—  Work   in   Lapland  —  New    Sweden  —  Movements    Spas- 
modic and  Individual  —  Peter  Heyling  —  Von  Welz. 

II.  Early  Dutch  Missions.        Pages  22-38. 

The  Netherlands  —  Opportunity  for  Missions  —  Evangelism  in 
Mind  —  Missionary  College  —  Various  Localities  —  Eastern 
Archipelago  —  India  —  Surinam  —  Defects  of  Those  Mis- 
sions—  Limited  Term  of  Service  —  Vernaculars  Not  Mas- 
tered —  Superficial  Instruction  —  Secular  Inducements  — 
Present  Dutch  East  Indies  —  Dutch  Missionary  Societies  — 
Other  Missionary  Societies  —  Growth  of  Mohammedanism. 

III.  Early  English  Movements.    Pages  39-58. 

Preliminary  —  The  Reformation  in  England  —  Individual  Move- 
ments—  Alleine,  Oxenbridge,  Lake,  Hyde,  Cromwell,  Boyle 

—  New  England  Colonies  Missionary  —  Secular  Elements 

—  Divine    Design  —  Colonial    Evangelism  —  Pilgrim    and 
Puritan  —  The  Indians  —  The  Apostle  Eliot  —  In  England 

—  Pastorate  at  Roxbury  —  The  Language  —  His  Incentives. 

IV.  John  Eliot.  Pages  59-81. 

His  Methods  —  Initial  Proceedings  —  Civilization  Developing  — 
Literary  Labors,  Works  Original  and  Translated  —  Trans- 
lation of    the   Bible  —  Comparative    Embarrassments  —  A 


VI  CONTENTS. 

Peerless  Achievement  —  His  Successes  —  Undoubted  Con- 
versions—  Church  Organization  Delayed  —  Fruits  of  Labor 
—  Trials  and  Disappointments,  Personal,  Relating  to  In- 
dians, Hostilities,  Decadence  —  Resume'  —  Results  Per- 
petuated. 

v.  Among  Indians.  Pages  83-116. 

In  Massachusetts,  Southeastern  Section  —  Martha's  Vineyard 
and  Nantucket  —  The  Mayhews  —  Co-laborers  and  Succes- 
sors —  Results  —  Barnstable  County  —  Plymouth  —  Massa- 
chusetts Colony  —  Berkshire  County,  John  Sergeant  — 
Jonathan  Edwards  —  Other  Laborers  —  General  Consider- 
ations—  In  Rhode  Island  —  Roger  "Williams  —  Church  at 
Westerly  —  In  Connecticut,  Early  Attempts  —  Eleazer 
Wheelock  —  Samson  Occom  —  In  New  York  and  Other 
Colonies  —  Conclusion. 

VI.  David  Brainerd.  Pages  117-147. 

Brainerd's  Influence  —  Religious  Experience  —  Spiritual  Strug- 
gles —  Christian  Outset  —  College  Career  —  Religious  Ex- 
ercises —  Forgiving  Spirit  —  Sense  of  Sin  —  Aspirations 
after  Holiness  —  Supreme  Motive  —  Temperament  —  No 
Exaggeration  —  Missionary  Life  —  Preliminary  —  At  Kaun- 
aumeek  —  No  Wavering  —  Among  Delawares,  At  Forks 
of  the  Delaware — On  the  Susquehannah  —  At  Crossweek- 
sung  —  Impediments,  In  Traveling  —  111  Health  —  Indian 
Character  —  Unfriendly  Whites  —  The  Language  —  Devot- 
edness — Success — Revival  Experiences  —  The  Work  Genu- 
ine —  Numerical  Results  — Attestations  —  Methods  —  Evan- 
gelical Truth  —  Prevailing  Prayer  —  Last  Days. 

VII.  Danish  Missions-  Pages  148-174.1 

Denmark  and  the  Anglo-Saxons  —  Frederick  IV  —  Origin  of 
the  Movement  —  First  Missionaries  —  The  Period  —  The 
Field  —  Early  Experiences  —  Initial  Labors  —  Disappoint- 
ments— Maltreatment  —  Reenforcements — Ziegenbalg's  Ar- 
dor—  Visits  Europe  —  Literary  Labors  —  Early  Death. 


CONTENTS.  Vli 

VIII.  Christian  Frederick  Schwartz 

Pages   175-202. 

Germany,  1750  —  C.  F.  Schwartz  —  Outset — The  Mission  — 
Schwartz  as  Missionary  —  Trichinopoly  Rock  —  Schwartz 
as  Diplomatist  —  Caste  —  Schwartz's  Celibacy  —  Devoted- 
ness  —  Unworldly  —  Longevity  —  Last  Days. 

IX.  Critique  upon  the  Mission.      Pages  203-333. 

Relations  Vague  —  Decline  —  Decay  Lamentable  —  Superfici- 
ality —  Caste  —  Native  Pastorate  —  Education  —  Subordi- 
nate Pursuits  —  Political  Disorder  —  Persecution  —  Diver- 
sities —  State  Relations  —  Nominal  Christians  —  Direct 
Results  —  Reflex   Results  —  Resident   Europeans. 

X.  Hans  Eoede.  Pages  283-260. 

Arctic  Regions  —  Hans  Egede  —  Providential  Leadings  —  Per- 
sistence —  Encouragement  Tardy  —  Greenland  —  Discour- 
agements —  Perseverance  —  Results  —  Mistaken  Theory  — 
Egede  Returns  —  Heroism  —  Arctic  Disasters  —  Genuine 
Nobility  —  Usefulness. 

XI.  Moravian  MissioNsi  Pages  261-2S9. 

John  Hubs  —  Discipline  —  Moravian  Antecedence  —  Zinzendorf 
—  The  Epoch  —  Motive  Power  —  Christian  Loyalty  — 
Small,  Great  —  Herrnhut,  1732  —  Coincidences  —  First  Mis- 
sionaries —  No  Romanticism  —  Fidelity  —  August  21  — 
Fields  and  Forces  —  Burial  Places  —  The  Lesson. 

Appendix.     Pages  291-310. 


PROTESTANT    MISSIONS 

THEIR  RISE  AND   EARLY   PROGRESS 


I 

PERIOD  OF  THE  REFORMATION 


On  a  Chinese  map  of  the  world,  two  feet  by 
three  and   a  half,  the  Celestial  Empire  occupies 
nearly   the   whole   surface.     In    the 
left  hand  upper  corner  Europe  and       views 
Africa  appear  as  small  islands.    Such 
exaggerated  local  conceptions  are  by  no  means  an 
Oriental  peculiarity.     The  same  may  be  noticed 
in  every  land,  every  neighborhood,  and  connected 
with   every  interest.     Where,  however,  national 
or  sectional  vanity  is  in  some  measure  corrected 
by  geographical  knowledge   it  often  indemnifies 
itself   by   an  overestimate  of  local  excellencies. 
We  are  reminded  of  another  instance  of  Eastern 
hyperbole.     Ormuz,  a  barren  rock  in  the  Persian 
Gulf  once  of  some  little  importance,  occasioned 
the  proverb,  "  The  world  is  a  ring,  and  Ormuz 
is  the  gem  which  it  contains."     In  the  religious 
and  the  chitrchly  world  a  habit  of  excessive  self- 
valuation   often   appears.     Denominational   opti- 
mism  is   nearly  universal.    Superiority  of  creed, 
culture,  character,  or  worship  is  a  claim  which, 


4  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

with  varying  degrees  of  obtrusiveness,  shows  it- 
self on  every  side.  Something  of  this  may  be 
seen  in  missionary  movements.  The  periodicals 
and  the  platforms  of  different  societies  exhibit  not 
unfrequently  a  certain  amount  of  positive  self- 
glorification,  or  the  same  is  shown  negatively  by 
an  ignorance  or  an  ignoring  of  all  others. 

The  prevailing  representation  is  that  modern 
missions  took  their  rise  near  the  close  of  the  last 
century.  Even  on  an  occasion  so  nearly  ecumen- 
ical as  that  of  the  London  Missionary  Conference 
in  1888,  individual  limitation  of  historical  range 
was  frequently  manifest.  Indeed  the  gathering, 
great  and  valuable  as  it  was,  proceeded  upon  the 
basis  of  "  a  century,"  "  the  century,"  of  missions 
reckoned  from  1788  —  a  date  having  no  special 
evangelistic  significance,  and  as  inappropriate  as 
to  reckon  longitude  eastward  from  nowhere,  as- 
suming that  there  is  no  terrestrial  area  west  from 
GreenAvich.  Prevailing  misapprehension,  which 
often  appears  still  in  missionary  literature,  needs 
to  be  corrected  and  the  remoter  genesis  of  this 
enterprise  examined.  As  there  were  reformers 
before  the  Reformation,  so  there  were  missions 
long  before  the  present  evangelistic  era.  An 
adequate  study  on  that  line  may  serve  to  culti- 
vate in  a  self-complacent  generation  the  wisdom 
of  modesty. 

Protestant  missions,  it  will  be  noticed,  are  an- 
nounced as  now  in  hand.     Tlie  very  term    Protes- 


PERIOD   OF   THE   REFORMATION.  5 

tant  takes  us  at  once    to  the    sixteenth  century 

Reformation.      The    genetic     method     of    treats 

ment  —  now  happily    becoming  the    more    usual 

method  —  which  recognizes  the  law  of  continuity 

in  affairs  human    and  divine,    may 

seem  to  demand  that  we  begin  at     „^?°    °  .*  ® 

°  Reformation, 

the   opening  of  the    Christian    era. 

That,  however,  would  lead  us  through  one  belt 
of  the  entire  wide  field  of  church  history  down 
to  modern  times.  But  if  in  the  course  of  the 
last  eighteen  hundred  years  there  is  any  period 
at  which  a  new  order  of  things  authorizes  one 
to  take  a  new  and  independent  start  in  contem- 
plating evangelistic  aggressiveness  is  it  not  the 
great  upheaval  of  the  sixteenth  century?  For 
Christendom  it  was  much  the  same  as  one  of 
the  vast  geological  convulsions  in  the  crust  of 
our  globe. 

Here  at  the  very  outset  arises  the  question, 
Why  were  not  foreign  missions  undertaken  imme- 
diately upon  that  great  overturning? 

rry\  •  i.  i"       i.     ii     1       T^u  PoHtical  and 

ihe  reason  is  not  lar  to  nnd.     ihere      „.        .  , 

Financial. 

were  conditions  exceedingly  unfavor- 
able to  such  movements.  Political,  social,  and 
financial  affairs  seemed  to  forbid  anything  of  the 
kind.  Christendom  had  become  an  ecclesiastical 
empire,  the  state  was  nearly  everywhere  absorbed 
in  the  church,  and  wealth  was  largely  in  the 
hands  of  the  priesthood.  The  Head  of  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire,  for  example,  received  not  a  foot 


6  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

of  territory  in  Germany  or  Italy  with  his  imperial 
diadem.  Maximilian  affirmed  that  the  pope  had  a 
hundred  times  as  much  revenue  even  from  Ger- 
many as  himself.  The  peasantry  was  everywhere 
in  a  deplorable  condition.  The  knighthood  had  to 
a  large  extent  degenerated  into  banditti.  Religion 
was  widely  reduced  to  a  round  of  externalities ; 
it  was  paganized.  The  abominable  system  of  in- 
dulgences had  become  prevalent.  Monks,  like  a 
swarm  of  harpies,  preyed  upon  the  people.  The 
clergy,  exempt  from  criminal  law,  was  widely  cor- 
rupt. Having  sole  authority  to  solemnize  mar- 
riage, holding  the  keys  of  the  unseen  world,  an 
unscrupulous  priesthood  had  ample  opportunities 
to  enrich  itself;  wills  were  probated  only  in  ec- 
clesiastical courts.  Hades  itself  being  annexed 
to  the  papal  dominions,  what  fear  of  God  or  man 
could  be  expected  to  restrain  a  debased  hierarchy? 
Religion  became  a  synonym  for  extortion  and 
social  corruption.  Not  simply  delinquencies,  but 
debaucheries  and  atrocities  prevailed.  No  won- 
der that  an  emperor  of  Austria  —  the  compara- 
tively respectable  Maximilian  —  on  learning  the 
treachery  of  Leo  X  exclaimed :  "  This  pope,  like 
the  rest,  is  in  my  judgment  a  scoundrel.  Hence- 
forth I  can  say  that  in  all  my  life  no  pope  has 
kept  his  word  or  faith  with  me.  I  hope,  if  God 
be  willing,  this  one  shall  be  the  last  of  them." 
Even  the  vacillating  Erasmus,  who  never  had  the 
courage  of  his  convictions,  wrote  :  "  All  sense  of 


PERIOD   OF   THE  REFORMATION.  7 

shame  has  vanished  from  human  affairs.  I  see 
that  the  very  height  of  tyranny  has  been  reached. 
The  pope  and  kings  count  the  people  not  as  men 
but  as  cattle  in  the  market."  Only  those  who 
had  the  courage  of  their  ignorance  could  maintain 
willing  fealty  to  such  a  system.  If  ever  reform 
and  revolution  were  needed  on  earth,  was  it  not 
then?  Papal  Christendom  had  become  as  truly 
a  missionary  field  as  the  unevangelized  world  is 
today.  To  reenthrone  Christ  instrumentally  at 
the  head  of  a  spiritual  Church  was  enough  for 
men  of  the  sixteenth  century  to  accomplish.  It 
was  a  struggle  of  life  or  death  in  which  they 
were  engaged.  No  thanks  to  Rome  that  Luther, 
Calvin,  and  Knox,  instead  of  meeting  the  same 
fate  as  Savonarola,  Ridley,  and  Cranmer,  were 
permitted  to  die  in  their  beds.  With  some  show 
of  reason  might  it  be  said  there  were  neither 
men  nor  means  for  carrying  on  evangelism  out- 
side of  the  nominally  Christian  world.  The  so- 
cial disturbances,  insurrections,  and  wars  that 
arose  kept  attention  riveted  upon  more  imme- 
diate surroundings. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  also,  that  the  very 
idea  of  a  foreign  promulgation  of  such  degener- 
ate Christianity  as  then  dominated  Europe  had 
become  faint.  The  mighty  spasm  of  the  Crusades 
was  not  even  military  evangelism  ;  their  futility 
and  folly  were  conspicuous.  For  three  hundred 
years   the   Roman.   Catholic    Church   had   nearly 


8  PEOTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

ceased  to  be  aggressive.  Resistance  to  Moham- 
medans with  force  of  arms  appeared  to  be  de- 
manded on  the  Continent  by  the  instinct  of 
self-preservation.  Emancipation  of  society  from 
the  papal  thraldom  under  which  it  had  long 
been  held  could  not  be  expected  to  bring  with 
No  it  immediate  breadth  and  symmetry 

Aggressive     of  religious  thought  and  enterprise. 

Sentiment.  ^  yictim  escaping  from  the  folds 
of  a  boa-constrictor  is  presumably  not  in  the 
condition  of  a  vigorous  athlete.  Great  moral 
ideas  and  forces  destined  to  affect  remote  regions 
are  always  of  slow  growth.  Is  an  earthquake  a 
favorable  opportunity  for  measurements  of  lati- 
tude and  longitude  ? 

There  was  yet  another  reason  —  an  inadequate 
apprehension  of  the  predicted  future  of  Christ's 
kingdom  on  earth.  Reference  is  not  now  made 
to  the  literalistic  fanaticism  of  Anabaptists,  nor 
to  clearly  defined  millenarianism,  which,  if  based 
upon  sober  though  mistaken  interpretation  of 
prophecy,  may  be  no  impediment,  may  even  be 
an  incentive  to  universal  evangelism.  Reference 
is  had  rather  to  a  want  of  duly  expanded  views 
concerning  the  predicted  scope  of  our  Lord's 
spiritual  dominion  here  below.  The  Reformers 
somewhat  generally  appeared  not  to  take  in  the 
thought  that  there  is  a  divine  purpose  and  an 
imperative  duty  concerning  the  spread  of  Chris- 
tianity   widely,  most    widely,  beyond   all   limits 


PERIOD    OF   THE   EEFOEMATION.  9 

hitherto  attained.  Their  eschatology  lacked  such 
clear  and  settled  consistency  as  imparts  calmness 
and  persistent  energy  in  toiling  for  a  remote  end. 
It  was  colored  by  that  haste  of  opinions  and 
impatience  of  expectation  which  always  mark 
critical  epochs  and  times  of  excitement.  Ex- 
traordinary events,  whether  plagues,  conflagra- 
tions, or  persecutions,  have  often  stimulated  a 
belief   that   the   second    advent    of 

Christ  in  bodily  presence  and  vis-     ^'^taken 

,  Eschatology. 

ible    reign    on    earth   was    near   at 

hand,  or  else  that  the  final  judgment  impended. 

It   was   assumed   by  Luther,   for   instance,   that 

gospel    promulgation    had    already    reached    its 

limits,    and    his    eschatology    neither   suggested 

nor  hardly  admitted  of  foreign  evangelism.     He 

declared,  "Another  hundred  years   and   all  will 

be  over."  ' 

Not   quite   a   decade,   however,   had    gone   by 

after   the   death   of  Luther   when    a    missionary 

movement  began.     In  the  year  1555  Henry  II  of 

France  sent  out  a  colony  to  Brazil  —  a  country 

which  had  been  discovered  only  half  a  century 

before    (1500).      The   noble  Huguenot,  Gaspard 

de  Coligni,  strongly  favored  the  measure,  hoping 

that   a  retreat  might  thus  be  found  for  his  per- 

'  Gustav  Warneck  :  Abrlss  einer  Gesckichte  der  protestantischen 
Missionen.  Leipzig,  1882  and  1883.  Translated  by  Dr.  Thomas 
Smith:  Outline  of  the  History  of  Protestant  Missions.  Edinburgh, 
1884.     Pp.  11-22  ;  193-194. 


10  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

secuted  Protestant  brethren.  That  year  (1555) 
witnessed  the  abdication  of  Charles  V  in  favor 
of  his  son,  Philip  II,  and  Protestants  in  any 
kingdom  might  well  have  forebodings.  The 
colonial  enterprise  referred  to  was  headed  by 
the  Chevalier  de  Villegagnon,  an  admiral  in  the 
French  navy,  who  on  arriving  at  Rio  de  Jan- 
eiro wrote  back  to  Coligni  for  reenforcements, 
and  wrote  also  to  John  Calvin,  with  whom  he 
had  been  acquainted  at  the  University  of  Paris, 

asking  for  divines  from  Geneva 
o  ony  in       ^-^^   should   plant  Christianity   in 

that  part  of  South  America.'  Ac- 
cordingly the  next  year  (1556)  fourteen  men, 
two  of  them  clergymen,  started  from  Geneva, 
and  in  passing  through  France  to  the  place  of 
embarkation,  Harfleur,  were  joined  by  about  three 
hundred  more.  Three  ships,  furnished  by  the 
government,  conveyed  the  company  to  Rio  de 
Janeiro,  where  they  experienced  severe  hardships. 
Little  could  be  effected  in  the  way  of  evangel- 
izing the  natives,  and  yet  a  few  conversions 
were  reported.  Villegagnon,  apostatizing  from 
the  Protestant  faith,  proved  a  base  traitor  and 
as  relentless  a  persecutor  as  any  French  cardinal 
could  wish.  That  was  contemporaneous  with  the 
martyrdom  of  Ridley  and  Latimer,  the  persecu- 
tion by  Bloody  Mary  being  in  full  tide.  In 
less  than  a  year  some  of  the  company  in  Brazil 

'  Note  1. 


PERIOD   OF   THE   REFORMATION.  11 

embarked  for  Europe.  A  few  of  them  escaped 
early  by  boat  to  the  land  they  had  just  left, 
three  of  whom  were,  by  firders  from  the  infamous 
Villegagnon,  thrown  into  the  sea  as  heretics  and 
drowned.  One,  named  John  Boles,  a  man  of 
learning,  escaped  from  the  clutches  of  Ville- 
gagnon, but  was  arrested  at  the  instance  of  Jes- 
uits, confined  in  prison  for  eight  years,  and  then, 
by  order  of  the  Portuguese  governor,  executed 
as  a  warning  to  his  countrymen  if  any  of  them 
were  still  in  concealment.  The  story  of  hard- 
ships, starvation  included,  experienced  by  those 
who  embarked  for  Europe  during  their  five 
months'  voyage  in  an  unseaworthy  vessel  have 
few  parallels  in  maritime  history. 

Such  were    the  character  and   speedy  close  of 
the  first  missionary  adventure  undertaken  while  /^ 
the  Reformation  was  yet  in  progress.     It  proved 
tragically  abortive.     Foreign  evangelism  was  not, 
however,  its  mainspring.     It  was  a  colonial  enter- 
prise, inspired  primarily  and   principally  by  the   V'v'-^-y^ 
desire  of  escaping  persecution  at  home  ;  yet  there    '^  .     / 
entered  into  it  a  true  missionary  element,  which 
showed  that  the  claims  of  Christ's  kingdom  were 
not  forgotten. 

The  result  of  the  experiment  in  South  America 
seems  to  us  now  all  the  more  sadly  humiliating 
when  we  call  to  mind  the  simultaneous  vaunted 
successes  of  Xavier  in  the  East.  The  Apostle  to 
the  Indies,  so  called,  had  already  rung  his  bell 


12  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

in  the  streets  of  Goa  (1542)  ;  had  labored  among 
the  pearl-fishers  of  Ceylon ;  had  baptized  thou- 
sands in  Travancore;  had  visited  Malacca  and 
Japan ;  and  near  the  coast  of  China,  whither  he 
was  bound,  had  closed  his  truly  remarkable  yet 
generally  overrated  career  (1552). 

While  it  is  the  rise  and  early  progress  of  mis- 
sions that  we  are  to  consider,  it  will  not  be  amiss 
just  to  glance  now  and  then  at  later  movements 
which  have  local  or  other  relations.  As  regards 
Brazil,  not  till  within  the  last  century  has 
Protestantism  effected  a  lodgment  in  that  coun- 
try, recently  an  empire,  now  a  repujblic,  and  the 
youngest  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Its  area  is 
nearly  equal  to  that  of  Europe,  and  among  its 
population,  numbering  about  fourteen  millions,  var- 
ious bodies,  including  Methodist,  Episcopal,  Pres- 
byterian, Baptist,  in  the  United  States,  as  well  as 
"four  societies  or  more  in  England — have  estab- 
lished missions.  The  American  Bible  Society  has 
aided  the  good  work.  One  of  the  American  so- 
cieties operating  there  has  gathered  a  goodly 
number  of  churches,  and  no  Villegagnon  can 
now   banish  evangelical  Christians. 

The  second  Protestant  missionary  movement 
In  of  the  sixteenth  century  originated 

Lapland.  [yi  the  year  1559,  four  years  after 
the  foregoing ;  and  we  now  turn  from  tropical 
America  to  an  arctic  region  of  Scandinavia. 
Sweden   has   the   honor  of  its  origin  —  in  which 


PERIOD   OF   THE   EEFOKMATION.  13 

country  Christianity  first  found  lodgment  about 
the  year  1000,  and  was  favored,  as  you  recollect, 
by  Olaf,  its  first  king.  You  recall  the  labors 
at  that  period  of  Siegfried,  the  earnest  English 
missionary.  The  Protestant  Reformation  had 
the  patronage  of  Gustavus  Vasa,  cautious,  yet 
bold  when  needful,  and  as  resolutely  vigorous 
as  bold. 

When  in  the  twelfth  century  Sweden  subdued 
Finland  compulsory  conversion  took  place,  and 
the  Christianity  of  the  conquering  people  was 
not,  as  may  well  be  imagined,  of  the  highest 
type.  The  old  heathenism  had  its  strongholds 
still.  But  slight  impression  had  been  made  upon 
it  in  Lapland  at  the  north — now  no  longer  a 
geographical  unit  —  a  region  chiefly  within  the 
arctic  circle,  and  where  in  our  day  is  found  the 
most  northern  town  of  continental  Europe.  A  re- 
gion where  the  sun  does  not  rise  in  winter  and 
where  a  night  of  three  months  reigns ;  a  region 
largely  of  dreary  swamps ;  a  region  nearly  desti- 
tute at  that  time  of  hamlets  —  the  sparse  popula- 
tion being  nojnadic  in  their  habits — was  not  a 
promising  field  for  evangelistic  effort,  Arctic 
seas  furnish  only  lower  forms  of  animal  life, 
and  the  tribes  bordering  upon  those  seas  all 
round  the  northern  land-circuit  of  our  globe  be- 
long to  the  lower  grades  of  civilization.  But 
they  belong  to  the  human  race  —  to  those  for 
whom  Christ  died  and  to  whom   it   is  his  order 


14  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

that  the  gospel  be  sent.  King  Gustavus  felt  in 
some  measure  the  obligation,  and  sent  a  mission- 
ary thither.  He  also  sent  a  proclamation  order- 
ing the  people  to  assemble  at  a  given  time  with 
a  view  to  pay  their  annual  tax  and  to  receive 
religious  instruction.  But  neither  the  Swedish 
language  nor  the  royal  mandate  was  an  appropri- 
ate medium  of  evangelization.  Little  could  be  ex- 
pected or  was  then  effected.  Yet  the  movement 
indicated  the  presence  of  an  operative  Scriptural 
idea.  When  in  the  next  century  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus,  an  earnest  Protestant  and  the  most  illus- 
trious monarch  Sweden  has  ever  had,  interested 
himself  in  the  work  more  was  accomplished.  Dur- 
ing his  reign  the  first  book  in  the  language  of 
the  Lapps  was  printed  (1619)  at  Stockholm,  and 
amidst  his  campaign  in  Germany  he  was  still 
mindful  of  that  people. 

The  eighteenth  century  likewise  witnessed  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  Swedish  enthusiasm,  temporarily  at 
least,  in  behalf  of  Laplanders.  The  national  Diet 
passed  a  resolution  that  the  entire  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures should  be  translated  into  Lapponese.  Within 
the  present  century  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society  has  offered  generous  aid  toward  the  sup- 
ply especially  of  New  Testaments  in  that  lan- 
guage. Yet  to  this  day  the  Christianity  of  the 
Lapps  is  of  a  low  type^  While  no  great  amount 
of  vital  piety,  a  great  amount  of  intemperance 
may  be  witnessed.     As  with  fruit  trees  in  Lap- 


PERIOD   OF   THE  REFORMATION.  15 

land,  which  are  stunted  and  bear  little  or  no  fruit, 
so  with  the  churches. 

The  year  1637  was  the  date  of  a  Swedish  set- 
tlement on  the  east  bank  of  the  river  Delaware 
in  our  country.    This  settlement  bore 
the  name  of  New  Sweden.     The  en-      _      , 

Sweden, 
terprise,  undertaken  by  a  sturdy  ag- 
ricultural people,  received  encouragement  from 
Oxenstiern,  one  of  the  greatest  of  statesmen, 
ranking  with  Coligni  of  France,  in  the  foregoing 
century.  From  the  mother  country  clergymen 
came  to  minister  to  the  colonists,  and  also  en- 
gaged to  some  extent  in  work  among  neighboring 
Indians.  Campanius  began  Christian  endeavor  in 
behalf  of  the  Delawares  even  earlier  than  John 
Eliot  commenced  his  labors  near  Boston.  Cam- 
panius preached  in  the  vernacular,  and  translated 
Luther's  catechism,  as  well  as  other  elementary 
productions.  The  colony,  however,  adhered  to 
the  crown  of  Sweden  only  for  a  score  of  years. 
There  was  conflict  with  the  Dutch  of  New  Am- 
sterdam, now  New  York.  Two  forts,  Casimir  and 
Christina,  had  been  erected,  but  an  expedition 
under  Governor  Stuyvesant  captured  them  and 
took  the  officers  and  principal  inhabitants  prison- 
ers. Mission  work  ceased,  and  the  colonists,  be- 
coming at  length  absorbed  in  the  surrounding 
community,  lost  their  native  language. 

A    few    sporadic    and    individual    movements 
also  occurred.     The   case  of  Peter  Hey  ling,  the 


16  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

first  German  Protestant  missionary,  was  unique, 

not  only  as  that  of  a  solitary   standard  bearer, 

but  as  involved  in  a  certain  amount  of  romance. 

Born  at  Liibeck  in  1608,  he  went  when  twenty 

years   of  age  (1628)  to  Paris  for  a  four  years' 

course  of  study.     The  Thirty  Years'  War,  which 

so  devastated  Germany  (1618-1648),  destroying 

half  her  population  and  entailing  serfdom  upon 

her  peasantry,  was  then  in  progress, 

„    ,.  and  it  was  the  era  of  fierce  ortho- 

Heyhng. 

doxy  but  of  religious  decline  in  the 
Lutheran  Church.  Young  Heyling,  however,  had 
imbibed  evangelical  views  and  spirit  from  the 
writings  of  Luther,  Arndt,  Tauler,  and  Thomas  h, 
Kempis.  At  Paris  he  appears  to  have  been  in 
some  measure  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  Gro- 
tius,  then  Dutch  ambassador  at  the  French  court. 
More  noteworthy  was  his  association  with  other 
like-minded  evangfelical  German  students  in  Paris. 
/  Heyling  became  convinced  that  foreign  mission- 
1  ary  service  was  obligatory,  and  the  same  year 
,  that  Jesuits  were  expelled  from  Abyssinia  (1632) 
he,  though  not  aware  of  this  fact,  started  for 
that  country.  Stopping  at  Malta  he  studied  the 
Arabic,  then  visited  Alexandria,  Cairo,  and  Jeru- 
salem. He  formed  the  acquaintance  of  Coptic 
monks  at  their  monasteries  in  Egypt,  and  ap- 
pears to  have  been  everywhere  faithful  to  his 
evangelical  convictions  and  not  wholly  without 
success    in    promoting    spiritual    interests.      At 


PERIOD   OP   THE   REFORMATION.  17 

length,  in  1634,  he  had  opportunity  to  accompany 
the  new  Abiina  on  his  way  to  Abyssinia,  where 
Hey  ling  met  with  a  favorable  reception,  and  be- 
sides other  labors  translated  the  New  Testament 
into  Amharic  as  then  spoken,  thus  performing  a 
service  similar  to  what  Frumentius  did  twelve 
hundred  years  before. 

In  the  career  of  Heyling  there  are  points  of 
resemblance  to  that  of  Henry  Martyn,  and  one 
is  that  he  died  on  his  way  back  to  Europe.' 

It   is   a   coincidence    not   unworthy   of  notice 
that  just  two  hundred  years  after  Heyling  started 
(1632)  for  Abyssinia  two  representatives  of  the 
Church    Missionary  Society,   one  of  them    after- 
wards Bishop  Gobat,  started  (1832)  for  the  same 
country.     Others,  Isenberg  and  Krapf,  followed 
(1837);  and  the  St.  Chrischona  Institution,  near^       7*  /' » 
Basle,  has  also  sent  out  several  men.     But  at  ^^^^ r'^^^^yV--', 
present  time  there  are  no  Protestant  missionaries  .  -x-^.^.  <■.",/ 
in  that  Switzerland  of  Africa  —  a  fact  due  largely 
to  Roman  Catholic  intrigue.     Would  tliat  some    ^^^^ 
Ethiopian  treasurer  might  now  receive  the  bap-  ■"' 
tism  of  the  Spirit  and  go  on  his  way  of  home 
evangelism  rejoicing ! 

Among  individuals  in  the  seventeenth  century 
deeply    moved    on    the    subject    of 

.     .  ''  Von  Welz. 

missions  Justinian  Von  Welz  stands       -'^::3»-' 
conspicuous.     He   was  a  baron  belonging  to  an 
ancient  and  honorable  Austrian  family,  and  born 

'  Note  2. 


18  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

December  12,  1621.  That  year  witnessed  a  total 
suppression  of  Protestantism  in  Bohemia,  followed 
by  a  fearful  persecution  of  malcontents,  and  the 
father  of  Welz  removed  to  Saxony.  It  was  not 
strange  that  the  first  publication,  in  his  twentieth 
year,  of  young  Welz,  who  had  been  well  edu- 
cated, should  be  an  able  treatise  on  tyranny.'  He 
became  profoundly  impressed  with  the  obligation 
of  Christians  to  send  the  gospel  to  Mohammedans 
and  the  heathen,  and  beginning  in  1661.  he  issued 
successive  appeals  to  the  German  nobility,  uni- 
versity professors,  and  the  clergy,  setting  forth 
vigorously  the  claims  of  the  unevangelized.  Nor 
was  he  a  mere  unpractical  declaimer.  He  depos- 
ited twelve  thousand  German  dollars  toward  the 
establishment  of  a  seminary  for  the  education  of 
missionary  candidates,  and  advocated  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  missionary  department  or  college 
in  all  Protestant  universities,  each  to  have  three 
professors  —  one  of  Oriental  languages,  one  of 
evangelistic  methods,  and  one  of  ecclesiastical 
history  and  geography.  His  appeals  were  more 
especially  to  those  holding  the  Augsburg  Confes- 
sion, and  he  put  questions  plain  and  pertinent 
like  these :  "  Is  it  right  to  keep  the  gospel  to 
ourselves?  Is  it  right  that  students  of  theology 
should  be  confined  to  home  parishes  ?     Is  it  right 


'  Tractatus  de  tyrannide.  Lugduni  Batavorum.  1641.  In  1643 
a  second  edition  appeared,  with  the  title  De  Tyrannorum  ingenio 
et  arcanis  artibus  Liber.     Lugduni  Batavorum. 


PERIOD   OF   THE   REFORMATION.  19 

for  Christians  to  spend  so  much  on  clothing, 
eating,  and  drinking,  and  to  take  no  thought  to 
spread  the  gospel?"  A  few  Lutheran  pastors  and 
university  professors  expressed  approbation  of  the 
,  object  urged  by  Welz,  but  interest  enough  to  form 
(^a  missionary  society  could  not  be  evoked.  Super- 
intendent Ursinus,  of  Regensburg  —  not  Zacharias 
Ursinus,  who  was  of  the  preceding  century  — 
wrote  against  the  proposed  movement  and  grossly 
abused  the  baron.  Tlie  attitude  of  Ursinus  and 
his  qualification  for  judging  a  man  inflamed  with 
the  missionary  spirit  may  be  learned  from  what 
he  says  of  the  Greenlanders,  Lapps,  Tartars,  and 
Japanese,  "  The  holy  things  of  God  are  not  to 
be  cast  before  such  dogs  and  swine ! "  It  is 
doubtful  if  a  sheet  let  down  from  heaven,  with 
all  manner  of  four-footed  beasts,  would  have 
convinced  him,  as  it  did  Peter,  that  such  Gen- 
tiles are  entitled  to  have  the  gospel.  Welz 
could  obtain  the  publication  of  his  works  only 
in  Holland. 

True  there  was  a  tinge  of  enthusiasm  in  this 
man.  The  absence  of  all  effective  sympathy  for 
the  undertaking  proposed  and  indifference  to  plain 
Christian  duty  stirred  a  measure  of  indignation 
on  his  part.  Some  degree  of  acerbity  and  impa- 
f  tience  mingled  unwisely  with  his  animadversions, 
but  a  fanatic  he  was  not.  His  motives  were  un- 
impeachable, his  perseverance  laudable,  and  at 
length,  having  resigned  titles  of  honor,  he  went 


20  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

out  to  Surinam,  the  Dutch  colony  which  has  been 
spoken  of,  as  a  missionary  to  the  heathen,  where 
he  soon  died,  in  the  year  1668. 

In  the  Lutheran  Church  that  was  a  period  of 
lifeless  orthodoxy  and  of  fierce  polemics.  To  the 
worldliness  and  torpidity  of  that  church  must  be 
charged  mediately  the  heated  spirit  and  almost 
heartbreak  of  this  self-sacrificing  man.  Reason- 
able response  to  his  clarion  summons  would  prob- 
ably have  saved  him  to  a  noble  service  in  the 
ichurch  and  for  the  church  and  have  proved  an 

/unmeasured  benediction  to  Germany.  He  was 
the  Count  Zinzendorf  of  that  period,  in  advance 
of  his  age,  and  without  Zinzendorf's  favoring 
opportunity  for  usefulness. 

Most  meager,  then,  were  the  missionary  move- 

,  ments  and  results  of  Protestantism  in  the  six- 
teenth  century.     Indeed,  as   now  commonly  un- 

j  derstood,  missions,  denoting  evangelism  among  a 

J  foreign  people  the  main  aim,  hardly  existed.  A 
migration  abroad  for  political  and  personal  rea- 
sons is  not  missionary^  while  Christian  endeavor 
in  behalf  of  one's  fellow  citizens  or  one's  sub- 
jects is  liome  missionary.  Still,  the  new  reli- 
gious life  that  was  awakened  at  the  Reformation 
had  a  germ  destined  to  expand  and  bear  fruit 
as  time  went  on. 

In  all  human  affairs  movements  comparatively 
ill-advised,  badly  administered,  and  abortive  usu- 
ally precede  and  help  to  prepare  for  those  more 


PERIOD    OP   THE   REFORMATION.  21 

Wisely  planned  and  which  give  more  assurance  of 
success.  Not  only  so,  but  beneficent  enterprises 
usually  have  an  inconspicuous  origin.  There  is 
an  old  proverb,  "The  streams  which  turn  the 
mill  clappers  of  the  world  often  rise  in  solitary 
places." 


II 

EARLY  DUTCH  MISSIONS 


The  Protestant  movements  of  the  sixteenth 
and  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  centuries,  col- 
lective and  individual,  though  feeble  and  well- 
nigh  fruitless,  revealed  germinant  thoughts.  The 
blade  was  then  scarcely  above  ground ;  in  the 
eighteenth  century  the  ear  was  to  be  seen ; 
the  full  corn  in  the  ear  did  not  show  itself 
before  the  era  in  which  we  now  live. 

Advancing   from   the  sixteenth   to   the  seven- 
teenth century  we  observe  an  evolution  from  a 
precursory  period  into  a  period  pre- 
^  liminary  to  formal  missionary  organ- 

ization. Here  Holland  first  attracts 
our  attention.  The  enterprising  spirit  of  the 
Dutch  was  at  once  a  prophecy  and  a  pledge  that 
the  Protestant  Reformation  would  find  lodgment 
in  the  Netherlands.  Nowhere  else,  however,  in 
Europe  were  its  advent  and  progress  met  by 
heavier  persecution  or  more  higli-handed  tyranny. 
No  one  whose  nerves  are  not  firm,  and  Avho  has 
not  self-control  sufficient  to  curb  an  indignation 


EARLY    DUTCH    MISSIONS.  23 

that  might  cause  rupture  of  the  heart,  should 
read  the  history  of  Holland  at  that  period.  The 
Emperor  Charles  V,  after  sanctioning  many  a  hol- 
ocaust of  Protestants,  resigned  the  sovereignty  of 
the  Netherlands  and  other  hereditary  possessions 
(1555)  in  favor  of  his  son,  Philip  II.  His  dying 
injunction  to  this  worthy  successor  reads,  "  Deal 
to  all  heretics  the  extremest  rigor  of  the  law, 
without  respect  of  persons  and  without  regard 
to  any  favoring  pleas."  Never  was  an  atrocious 
order  carried  out  with  more  truculent  persist- 
ency. Philip,  by  nature  cold  and  cruel,  schooled 
himself  systematically  in  deception,  yet  was  punc- 
tiliously bigoted  in  observing  outward  religious 
formalities.  Destitute  of  principle,  he  was  domi- 
nated by  the  notion  that  royalty  is  irresponsible, 
that  deceit  is  the  soul  of  diplomacy,  and,  before 
all,  that  no  faith  is  to  be  kept  with  heretics.} 
Nothing  more  clearly  reveals  his  character  than 
some  of  his  orders  and  utterances.  (^"  All  who 
reject  Rome,"  he  wrote,  "  are  heretics.  Enforce 
the  edicts  against  all  sectaries,  without  any  dis- 
tinction or  mercy,  if  they  be  merely  spotted  with 
Luther's  errors."     ' 

This  sullen  and  relentless  despot  had  no  diffi- 
culty in  finding  sympathetic  agencies  —  a  pope 
ready  with  dispensations  for  perjury,  a  cardinal 
steeped  in  the  ethics  of  Jesuitism,  and  a  general- 
issimo unmatched  in  diabolism  save  by  the  prince 
of  darkness.     Duke  Alva  is  to  be  mentioned  only 


24  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

with  bated  breath,  his  doings   recorded  only  in 
lurid  lines  shading  off  harmoniously  with  the  pit 
of  outer  darkness.     His  sentiments  at  one  with 
those  of  his  master  in  Spain,  he  could  write  con- 
genially to  Catherine  de'  Medici,  in  whose  soul 
,  was   hatched   the    Saint   Bartholomew   massacre. 
After  the  destruction  of  Naardin  he  could  write 
to  Philip,  "  The  army  cut  the  throats  of  all ;  not 
'  a  mother's  son  was  left  alive."     His  last  act  be- 
fore leaving  Netherlands  was  to  roast  over  a  slow 
fire  a  Protestant   gentleman  of  Ghent.     On  the 
'  journey  back  to  Spain  he  boasted  that  in  a  five 
years'  administration  eighteen  thousand  and  six 
/  hundred  citizens  had  been  done  to  death  by  the 
j  headsman ;  but  in  that  boast  no  account  was  taken 
'   of  the  thousands  upon  thousands  of  both  sexes 
,  and  all  ages,  victims  of  battle,  siege,  famine,  and 
\  massacre. 

The  tools  of  Alva  and  his  successors  in  office 
were  of  the  same  school  of  religious  and  political 
malignity.  ( Protestants  were  looked  upon  simply 
as  so  much  prey,  and  their  possessions  as  law- 
ful booty^  Women  were  buried  alive  merely  for 
reading  the  Bible.  Men  were  sacrificed  with  no 
charge  of  overt  offense,  but  only  for  their  thoughts. 
Throngs  of  ancient  heathens  could  shout  Ad 
hones  ("  To  the  lions  ")  with  the  Christians ;  but 
it  was  reserved  for  Christian  Spaniards  to  shout 
Ad  patibulum  ("  To  the  gallows ")  with  men 
whose  only  crime  was  lack  of  faith  in  a  heathen- 


EARLY   DUTCH    MISSIONS.  25 

ized  Christianity.  It  was  not  only  in  war  time 
that  brutality  and  butchery  were  rife,  but  in  the 
leisure  of  peace.  Tens  of  thousands  of  refugees 
betook  themselves  to  other  countries ;  trade  and 
manufactures  were  at  times  nearly  suspended ; 
dikes  were  down  ;  cattle  were  swept  away  ;  dwell- 
ings —  whole  cities,  indeed  —  were  burned  to  the 
ground. 

Jehovah  of  hosts  interposed.  Never  since  Is- 
rael's great  lawgiver  and  general  had  there  been 
raised  up  for  the  deliverance  of  a  harried  people  a /^ 
man  more  self-poised,  more  sagacious  as  a  states- ^^-^  .  J' 
man,  more  self-sacrificing  as  a  patriot,  more  trust- 
ful in  the  God  of  justice,  than  William  the  Silent. 
Once  only  in  the  long  struggle  against  desperate 
odds  did  he  lose  heart.  It  became  a  question 
whether  the  inhabitants  should  not  flee  the  land, 
open  all  the  sluices,  and  let  the  sea  once  more 
have  sway,  washing  a  soil  so  plentifully  stained 
with  innocent  blood.  But  William  dismissed  the 
thought ;  he  continued  to  plan  wisely  and  to  act 
with  energy. 

Out  of  such  materials  as  remained  after  the 
Spanish  Inquisition  and  the  armies  of  Spain  had 
done  their  work  he  founded  the  Dutch  Republic. 
To  his  immortal  honor  be  it  recorded,  he  was  the^^  *^ 
first  of  modern  rulers  in  Europe  to  proclaim  and^^.  c^^ 
act  upon  the  principle  of  religious  toleration,  and!\. , /"^/^^ . 
that,  too,  in  spite  of  provocation  to  retaliate  such  Wvi 
IS  no  European  ruler  ever  had.    Philip  set  a  pricQ 


26  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

upon  his  head,  and  he  fell  (1584)  by  the  hand 
of  a  Catholic  assassin. 

Not  till  1690  did  the  seven  provinces  succeed 
in  finally  expelling  the  Spaniards,  and  not  till 
nineteen  years  later  (1609)  did  they  secure  recog- 
nition of  their  independence  of  Roman  Catholic 
archdukes.  It  is  a  decisive  proof  of  recuperative 
energy  and  signal  enterprise  that  tliey  should  so 
soon  after  the  wild  butchery  and  robbery  to  which 
they  had  been  subjected  begin  to  compete  with 
Spain  and  Portugal  for  the  lucrative  trade  of  the 
East,  and  should  secure  a  permanent  foothold  in 
Opportunity  J^^'^  (1595),  an  island  larger  than 
for  Portugal.    Before  long  a  Dutch  East 

Missions.  iiitlia  Company  is  chartered  (1602), 
having  powers  and  a  history  not  unlike  that  of 
England,  which  was  incorporated  two  or  three 
years  before  (December  31,  1599).  A  little  later 
still  (1607)  conquests  began.  The  Moluccas  were 
subdued  and  the  Portuguese  rule  in  Ceylon  was 
terminated.  Just  one  hundred  years  after  the 
Portuguese  began  to  secure  possessions  in  the 
Orient  (1509)  the  States  General  of  Holland  ap- 
pointed (1609)  a  governor  general  of  their  new 
acquisitions  in  the  same  quarter.  Before  very 
many  years  Spanish  and  Portuguese  possessions 
and  trade  in  the  East  were  to  a  large  extent 
captured  by  the  Dutch. 

It  might  be  expected  that  a  people  who  had 
carried  to  its  successful  issue  a  long  struggle  with 


EARLY    DUTCH    MISSIONS.  27 

the  autocrat  of  half  the  civilized  world — a  people 
whose  martyrs  could  go  to  the  stake  singing  Te 
Deum  laudamus,  whose  very  country  was  cre- 
ated by  the  Reformation,  would  bethink  them- 
selves early  of  religious  duty  to  those  far  away  as 
well  as  to  those  living  behind  their  native  dikes. 
There  is  evidence  that  evangelization  was  in 
the  thoughts  of  Protestant  Hollanders  from  the 
very  outset  of  their  commercial  enterprises.  Let- 
ters patent  granted  to  the  East  India  Company, 
like  those  of  the  English  colonies  in  the  same 
century,  show  that  at  least  a  subsidiary  and  os- 
tensible object  was  to  make  known 

.,  ,  1        .1  1  Evaneelism 

the  gospel  among   heathen  peoples.  -^.    , 

The  want  of  men  duly  qualified  and 
ready  for  pastoral,  chaplain,  and  missionary  serv- 
ice gave  rise  at  the  opening  of  this  period  to 
efforts  for  supplying  the  deficiency-.  The  direct- 
ors of  the  company  just  named  showed  (1616) 
that  they  had  in  mind  a  college  for  that  purpose. 
Two  years  later  appeared  a  stirring  appeal '  on 
the  duty  of  sending  the  gospel  to  India.  It  was 
dedicated  to  Prince  Maurice,  and  urged  motives 
similar  to  what  have  since  been  pleaded  by  Eng- 
lish Christians  regarding  possessions  on  both  sides 
of  the  Ganges.  The  author,  Justus  Heurnius, 
was  then  a  student  of  theology,  who  afterwards 
became  himself  a  missionary  and  who  reminds  us 
of  our    Gordon    Hall.      Nor   was   this   the    only 


'  Admonitio  de  lec/atione  evangelica  ad  Indos  capissenda. 


28  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

work  of  the  kind  at  that  early  day.  Sebastian 
Dankaerts,  a  preacher  in  Amboyna,  the  most  im- 
portant island  of  the  Molucca  group,  wrote  ably 
in  behalf  of  the  cause.  His  book,  printed  (1621) 
with  the  approbation  of  the  faculty  at  Leyden, 
was  dedicated  to  the  States  General.  The  same 
year,  and  it  was  one  year  after  the  Pilgrims 
landed  at  Plymouth,  the  sjniod  of  South  Holland 
took  action  relating  to  mission  work  in  the  East. 
Some  friends  of  the  cause  entertained  the  thought 
of  having  natives  sent  to  Holland  for  education ; 
some  proposed  a  training  school,  besides  other 
schools,  in  the  East.  The  directors  of  the  East 
India  Company  sought  counsel  from  the  faculty 
at  Leyden  in  relation  to  a  seminary  or  college  for 
educating  laborers  who  should  go  out  to  their 
foreign  possessions.'    Such  a  thought 

Missionary  •  ^  J^  xi.-  i 

-,  J.  was  in  advance  ot  anything  known 

at  the  time  elsewhere  on  the  Conti- 
nent or  in  England.  A  plan  embracing  twenty 
specifications  was  drawn  up  by  Anthony  Walseus, 
one  of  the  professors,  who  became  the  principal 
of  the  college  or  seminary.  He  drafted  twenty- 
two  well-considered  regulations  relating  to  do- 
mestic habits  and  to  the  studies  of  the  young 
men.  In  the  seminary  Latin  was  to  be  the  sole 
language  of  social  intercourse.  He  gave  instruc- 
tion regarding  methods  of  reaching  the  heathen 
and  of  training  converts. 


Seminarium  Indicum. 


EARLY   DUTCH    MISSIONS.  29 

(  It  is  a  noteworthy  coincidence  tliat  the  same 
year  (1622)  which  witnessed  the  founding  of  tliis 
institute  was  signalized  also  by  the  establishment 
at  Rome  '  of  the  Catholic  Propaganda,  consisting 
of  thirteen  cardinals,  two  priests,  and  a  monk, 
having  for  its  object  foreign  missions  and  the 
conversion  of  heretics;  but  the  Catholic  college 
for  training  missionaries  dates  five  years  later 
(1627).  The  celebrated  Propaganda  remains  to 
this  day  an  efficient  institution  for  systematic 
proselytism,  while  the  seminary  at  Leyden  lasted 
only  ten  years  and  graduated  only  twelve  alumni,^ 

The  chief  object  of  nearly  all  ministers  who 
went  to  the  Netherlands  East  Indies  was,  it  should 
be  stated,  the  religious  welfare  of  Dutch  resi- 
dents, yet  the  heathen  and  Roman  Catholics  were 
also  in  mind.  A  good  deal  was  done,  from  time 
to  time,  toward  supplying  native  converts  of  dif- 
ferent nationalities  with  the  Word  of  God.  It 
deserves  notice  that  at  this  period  Grotius  wrote 
(1627)  his  celebrated  work  on  The  Truth  of  Chris- 
tianity 3  expressly  for  the  aid  of  missionaries. 

In  the  East  Indies  missionary  work  was  car- 
ried on  at  numerous  points.  Among  the  earlier 
ordained  men  who  went  from  Holland  to  the 
East  must  be  reckoned  some  able   and  evangel- 


'  By  the  bull  fnscrutabili  diuinre  providentia  arcano. 
'  Dr.  J.  A.   Grothe   in   Misstonszeitschrift.     Band  IX.     1882. 
S.  16-26;  85-92. 

*  JJe  Veritale  Reliyionis  Christianas. 


30  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

ical    ministers.     Numerous  conversions   were   re- 
ported.'     Thus    within    a    year    or    two    (1621) 
after  the  founding  of  Batavia  as  the  capital  of 
Netherlands  East  Indies  man}'-  thou- 

Vanous       qc^^^^    baptisms    were    said    to    have 
Ltocalities. 

taken  place.    In  1627  the  first  Dutch 

minister,  George  Candidius,  appeared  at  a  place 

called  Fort  Zeeland,  on  Formosa,  "  the  beautiful 

island,"  off  the  coast  of  China.     Robert  Junius, 

who  was  sent  out  (1631)  by  the  governor  of  the 

United  Provinces,  mastered  tlie  language  of  that 

island,  and  it  is  stated  that  in  the  course  of  twelve 

years  five  thousand  nine  hundred  heathens  were 

brought  to  Christ  by  him.    So  many  were,  at  least, 

baptized.    He  gathered  twenty-three 

Eastern         congregations  and  provided  pastors 

Archipelago.       „       ^,     ^  tj      .      •        3         .■  •   , 

for  them.  He  trained  native  assist- 
ants. At  one  time  there  were  eight  stationed 
preachers,  and  by  1645  word  was  sent,  "  The  peo- 
ple of  Formosa  are  no  longer  heathen."'  ^  But 
in  1661  the  famous  Chinese  pirate,  Coxinga,  in- 
vaded the  island,  slaughtered  many  of  the  con- 
verts, and  for  nearly  two  hundred  years  Formosa 
was  again  given  up  to  heathenisiiji^ 

The  Dutch  secured  a  foothold  on  the  southern 
peninsula   of  India,  and   in    1636    there   was   at 


'  Brown,  William  :  History  of  Missions.  Third  edition.  1864. 
Vol.  I,  pp.  10-30.  R.  Grundemann  :  Die  evangelische  Mission  in 
Indischen  Archipel.     Burkhardt,  1880. 

""  Note  3. 


EARLY    DUTCH    MISSIONS.  31 

Pulicat,  twenty  miles  north  from  Madras,  a  con- 
gregation of  Protestant  Christians,  the  first  any- 
where in  the  eastern  portion  of  tliat  continent. 
Portuguese  sway  on  Ceylon  having  given  way 
to  that  of  Netherlands,  Hornhonius,  the  pioneer 
Dutch  minister  on  that  island,  ar- 
rived 1642.     In  the  progress  of  con-         ' 

quest  and  civil  administration  multitudes  of  al- 
leged conversions  took  place.  Only  five  years 
later  (1647)  the  Dutch  introduced  Christianity 
into  Amboyna.  Forty  years  after  that  (1686) 
one  minister  at  the  capital  had,  if  a  statement 
is  to  be  credited,  baptized  something  like  thirty 
thousand  converts.  Further  details  of  this  seven- 
teenth century  work  in  the  Orient  are  not  needed 
to  show  that  territorially  it  was  wide  and  numer- 
ically considered  it  was  fruitful.' 

An  endeavor  in  South  America  also  deserves 
notice.  Possessions  were  acquired  (1624)  by  Neth- 
erlands in  Guiana  —  then  a  part  of  Brazil,  now 
Surinam  —  and  there  was  a  Dutch  West  India 
Company  as  well  (1621).  That  company,  even 
more  than  the  one  operating  in  the  East  Indies, 
had  regard  to  the  evangelizing  of  native  tribes. 
This  was  due  in  large  measure  to  the  decidedly 
religious  character  of  John  Maurice,  of  Nassau, 
who,  as  governor  general,  with  twelve  ships,  ar- 
rived at  Pernambuco  in  January,  1637.     In  mil- 

'  Note  4. 


i: 


S2  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

itary  command  and  in  civil  administration  he 
exhibited  much  wisdom  and  efficiency.  Like 
William  the  Silent  he  aimed  at  religious  tolera- 
tion. Portuguese  Catholics  and  Jews  had  occa- 
sion to  trust  and  respect  him.  He 
introduced  Protestant  preachers  ;  he 
established  schools  ;  he  encouraged  useful  trans- 
lations into  the  native  vernacular.  Niggardli- 
ness, misnamed  economy,  on  the  part  of  the  com- 
pany's directors  obliged  Maurice  to  resign  his 
office  (1644).  The  colony  began  at  once  to  de- 
cline, and  at  length,  in  1667,  was  surrendered 
to  the  Portuguese.  This  Protestant  endeavor, 
though  by  no  means  so  disastrous  as  that  far- 
ther south  in  Brazil  a  century  before,  left  no 
permanent  fruits.' 

Returning  now  to  the  work  as  carried  on  in 
the  East  Indies,  we  must  look  at  certain  of  its 
features,  and  we  shall  be  compelled  to  acknowl- 
edge that  no  small  discount  must  be  made.     The 

regulation  terra  of  service  for  minis- 
Brief  Service.     ^       . 

ters  going  out  irom  the  mother  coun- 
try was  only  five  years,  which  implied  a  very 
different  attitude  of  mind  and  degree  of  interest 
in  the  field  from  what  would  have  been  were  the 
enlistment  for  life.^ 


'  Prof.  Theo.  Christlieb  in  Missionszeitschri/l.  Band  VII.  1880. 
S.  564-574,  and  authorities  there  cited. 
'  Note  5. 


EARLY   DUTCH    MISSIONS.  3^ 

Comparatively  few  of  the  ministers  acquired 
sufficient  knowledge  of  native  languages  to  com- 
municate freely  with  those  who  Vernaculars 
used  them.  Without  such  mastery  not  Mastered, 
of  a  vernacular  preachers  can  have  small  reason- 
able hope  of  usefulness. 

A  more  serious  criticism  relates  to  the  insuffi- 
cient conditions  required  for  baptism,  and  the  gen- 
eral superficiality  of  religious  instruction.  Like 
a  frequent  Roman  Catholic  usage,  it  was  a  singu- 
lar and  inexcusable  defect  to  demand  so  little 
knowledge  of  the  great  truths  of  our  holy  reli- 
gion and  no  evidence  of  a  heart-acceptance  of  the 
same  preparatory  to  an  ordinance  which  sealed 
the  subject  as  a  Christian  professor.  Evidfince 
of  spiritual  conversion  not  being  required,  only 
a  religious  veneering  could  be  ex- 
pected, and  to  a  wide  extent  not  even  ,  "^'^'^  *?'* 
^  AT-  Instruction, 

so  much  was  put  on.     A  duplicate 

life  might  too  generally  be  seen  —  that  of  nominal 
Christianity  and  one  of  real  heathenism,  just  as 
Julian  the  Apostate  would  pray  to  Christ  by  day 
and  to  some  Roman  divinity  by  night.  Indis- 
criminate baptism  is  a  bane  instead  of  a  blessing 
—  is  a  mockery  of  "the  washing  of  regeneration 
and  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 

But  the  most  censurable  feature  of  Dutch  ad- 
ministrative proceedings  in  the  East  was  the  polit- 
ical bounty  put  upon  a  profession  of  Christianity. 
The  Portuguese  predecessors  of  the  Dutch  had,  by 


84  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

presenting  unworthy  motives,  secured  multitudes 
of  adherents,  and  Oriental  aptitude  for  hypoc- 
risy had  thus  received  special  culture  at  Western 
hands.  There  was  all  the  more  readiness  for  an- 
other religious  somersault  when  worldly  interest 
made  that  a  politic  maneuver.  Baptism  being  a 
condition  of  employment,  of  promotion,  and  even 
of  protection  under  law  by  new  masters,  Cath- 
olics and  heathens  alike  were  only  too  ready  to 
qualify  in  this  cheap  way  for  secular  advantages. 
Thousands  upon  thousands  needed  no  persuasion 
beyond  obvious  social  and  pecuniary 

ecu  ar        perquisites  to  renounce  Brahmanism, 
Inducements.  . 

Buddhism,  or  Romanism.     When  at 

a  later  day  certain  Netherlands  possessions  were 
captured  by  the  English,  and  Protestantism  no 
longer  held  out  attractions  of  lucre  or  honor, 
open  relapse  was  a  most  natural  result.  When  the 
vanquishers  retired  their  religion  vanished,  and  no 
martyrdom  for  Christ's  sake,  as  in  Madagascar, 
could  be  looked  for.  Where  no  change  of  moral 
character  takes  place  change  of  name  costs  nothing 
to  conscience  and  is  only  a  matter  of  loss  or  gain. 
Let  evangelism  become  a  department  of  civil  gov- 
ernment '  and  Christ's  spiritual  kingdom  will  make 
little  progress.  Of  that  kingdom  the  Dutch  in 
their  mission  work  entertained  inadequate  views, 
and  nowhere  is  theological  deficiency,  unconcern, 
or  error  so  mischievous  as  on  missionary  ground. 

'  Note  6. 


EARLY   DUTCH   MISSIONS.  35 

It  will  be  a  pardonable  digression  if  we  glance 
at  present  operations.  That  island  group,  the 
Dutch  East  Indies,  of  which  we  now  speak  — 
forming  a  bridge  from  the  Continent  to  Australia, 
and  through  which  midway  passes  the  equator  — 
is  the  largest  archipelago  in  the  world.  Its  col- 
lective area  equals  nearly  one  third 

of  continental    Europe,  and  at   the     ^      ... 

'-    '  East  Indies. 

present  time  has  a  population  of  be- 
tween twenty  and  thirty  millions — a  larger  num-. 
ber  than  Great  Britain  —  and  next  to  India  is 
the  most  valuable  foreign  possession  belonging  to 
any  country.  The  Dutch  are  now  the  most  in- 
fluential power  there,  and  their  possessions,  an 
empire  in  extent,  unlike  India,  yield  income  to 
the  national  exchequer. 

After  a  long,  dreary  period  of  mechanical  and 
external  Christianity  in  the  East  and  of  religious 
decline  in  the  home  country,  a  revived  mission- 
ary spirit  began  to  show  itself  in  Holland  about 
a  century  since.  This  stood  connected  with  the 
evangelistic  uprising  in  England.  The  celebrated 
Vanderkemp,  who  soon  after  entered  the  service 
of  the  London  Missionary  Society  (1798),  was 
active  in  the  formation  (1797)  of  the  Netherlands 
Missionary  Society,  which  has  carried  on  work  in 
Java,  Amboyna,  and  Celebes  and  reports  (1899) 
1,722  communicants,  and  adherents  in  much, 
larger     numbers     (10,836).  Half     a     contury 

went    by    before    any    other    missionary    move- 


36  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

ment  took  place.  As  the  Rhine  comes  down  tur- 
bid from  the  south,  so  from  the  same  quarter  a 
stream  of  rationalistic  influences  has  left  muddy 
deposits  in  Holland.  The  administration  of  the 
forenamed  society  having  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  unevangelical  men,  the  Dutch  Missionary  So- 
ciety was  founded  (1858)  by  men  of  a  different 
type  of  belief  and  action.  Their  chief  work  has 
been  among  the  Sundanese,  of  Western  Java, 
who  number  four  millions  and  are  Mohammed- 
ans. Evangelism  among  Mohammedans  every- 
where encounters  special  obstacles, 

„    .    .  yet  since  the  commencement  of  oper- 

Societies.      ''    _  ^ 

ations  some  measure  of  success  has 
been  realized  there,  and  the  Bible  has  been  given 
to  the  people  in  their  own  tongue.  A  year  later 
(1859)  another  organization,  the  Dutch  Reformed 
Missionary  Society,  was  founded  at  Amsterdam. 
Its  distinctive  principle  is  that  churches,  not  so- 
cieties, should  conduct  such  work.  Its  chief  field 
is  in  Central  Java.  There  are  yet  other  societies 
in  Holland  —  about  a  dozen  all  told  —  with  be- 
tween fifty  and  a  hundred  missionaries  scattered 
over  the  archipelago.  In  the  Celebes  a  flourish- 
ing operation  has  been  carried  on  ;  numerous 
adherents  have  been  gained.' 


'  J.  C.  Neurdenberg :  Geschiedenis  tegenover  Kritick.  Rotterdam, 
1864.  R.  Grundemann :  Johann  Friedrich  Riedel,  ein  Lebensbild 
aus  der  Minahassa  auf  Celebes.     Giitersloh,  1873. 


EARLY   DUTCH   MISSIONS.  37 

Dutch  evangelism  in  the  East  has  been  con- 
ducted during  the  present  century  upon  sounder 
principles  than  in  the  seventeenth  century,  yet 
there  appears  still  to  be  too  great  readiness  to 
administer  baptism." 

The  Rhenish  Missionary  Society,  also,  having 
begun  in  1836,  carries  on  work  in  two  or  three 
islands  of  that  widespread  group.  Nor  is  it 
wholly  out  of  place  to  add  here  that  the  Amer- 
ican Board  established  a  mission  at  Batavia  as 
long  ago  as  1836.  Special  embarrassments  were 
met  with,  and  after  a  dozen  years  the  undertak- 
ing was  relinquished   (1849).     The 

same  board  contemplated  also  a  mis-     „    .    . 

^    ,  ,  Societies. 

sion  in  Sumatra,  an  island  twice  as 
large  as  Holland  itself;  but  the  two  pioneers, 
Lyman  and  Munson,  were  killed  by  the  Battas 
(1834),  and  with  that  sad  event  the  enterprise 
terminated.^  The  Presbyterian  Church  of  Eng- 
land began  work  in  Formosa  1865,  and  seven 
years  from  that  time  the  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Canada  opened  work  on  the  island. 

Regarding  the  Netherlands  East  Indies,  certain 
circumstances  not  yet  alluded  to  are  sadly  sug- 
gestive.    Prior  to  the  Dutch  possessions  in  this 


'  Brown,  William  :  History  of  Christian  Missions.  Third  edi- 
tion.   In  three  volumes.     London,  1864.     Vol.  I,  pp.  514-519. 

^  Thompson,  William  :  Memoirs  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Munson  and 
the  Rev.  Henry  Lyman.  New  York,  1839.  The  Martyr  of  Sumatra: 
a  Memoir  of  Henry  Lyman.     New  York,  1856. 


38  PROTESTANT    MISSIONS. 

Eastern    Archipelago    Mohammedanism    had   ob- 
tained but  little  hold  comparatively.     Wherever 
Islam  at  the  present  time  encounters  heathenism 
it   gains   proselytes,  and   this   is   especially  true 
^  -^  where  natives  are  more  immediately  under  Dutch 
^rule.     Government  officials  have  a  train  of  infe- 
Growth  of      ^'^*^^   officers,  as  clerks,  interpreters, 
Moham-       policemen,  and  tradesmen,  and   the 
medanism.      Malay  is  the  language  of   common 
intercourse,  but  nearly  all  who  learn  the  Malay 
become  Mohammedans.     Thus  under  a  European 
Christian  power  Mohammedanism  is  making  more 
progress    than  anywhere  else  on  the  face  of  the 
earth. 

Government  neutrality,  as  it  is  called,  regard- 
ing religion  operates  often,  as  in  British  India, 
adversely  to  the  interests  of  Christianity."  Hol- 
\  land  has  not  yet  fulfilled  the  evident  providen- 
"tial  purpose  for  which  she  was  brought  into  con- 
nection with  numerous  unevangelized  peoples. 
She  has  enriched  herself  without  communicating 
largely  the  riches  of  the  kingdom. 


'  Dr.  Schreiber  in  Proceedings  of  the  General  Conference  on  For- 
eit/n  Missions,  held  in  London,  1878.  London,  1879.  Pp.  1.37-141. 
Also,  A.  Schreiber  :  Die  Kirche  und  die  Mission  in  Niederlandisch 
Indien.    Leyden,  1883. 


Ill 

EAELY  ENGLISH  MOVEMENTS 


We  have  seen  that  in  the  line  of  foreign  evan- 
gelization little  could  reasonably  be  expected 
during  the  sixteenth  century  Reformation.  We 
have  seen  that  perfidy  and  bit_ter  disappointment 
awaited  the  first  Protestant  mission.  We  have 
seen  that  superficial  Roman  Catholic  conquests 
in  heathen  lands  might  be  followed  in  some  in- 
stances by  Protestant  methods  scarcely  less  su- 
perficial ;  that  it  matters  little  who  presents  the 
mercenary  motives  of  office  and  emolument  as  a 
bonus  on  church  membership ;  such  conversioja^^  ,  J^ 
\  can  be  depended  upon  as  spurious.  Virtual  coer-  " 
cion  by  the  Dutch  in  their  East  India  possessions 
—  the  penalty  of  imprisonment  or  the  whipping 
post  for  participating  in  heathen  rites  —  was  a 
school  of  hypocrisy  and  aversion  to  Christianity. 
A  great  mistake  teaches  a  great  lesson. 

The  seventeenth  century  and  the  first  half  of 
the  eighteenth  were,  in  spiritual  and  evangelis- 
tic conditions,  the  Dark  Ages  of  Protestantism. 
Yet  there  were  gleams  of  light  —  foregleams  of 


40  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

the  brighter  day  that  has  since  dawned.  What 
seemed  to  be  isolated  and  exceptional  tokens  of 
expansive  religious  life  were,  after  all,  proof  of 
continuous  vitality,  sometimes  manifestly  increas- 
ing in  volume  and  then  apparently 

Preliminary.  r^.         ,  , 

ebbing.  Ihe  stream,  however,  was 
perennial  though  feeble,  like  the  Orange  River 
of  South  Africa,  which  in  a  part  of  its  course 
loses  by  evaporation  more  than  is  gained  by  a 
few  affluents,  but  which  at  length  makes  its  con- 
tribution to  the  great  sea. 

We  now  resume  incipient  missionary  move- 
ments in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  particu- 
larly those  from  Great  Britain.  Our  own  polit- 
ical and  social  condition  and  the  very  blood  in 
our  veins  have  intimate  concern  in  the  country 
and  the  period  to  which  thought  now  turns. 
Protestant  evangelism  this  side  of  the  Atlantic 
was  the  earliest  undertaken  or  fostered  by  the 
English,  and  is  to  be  contemplated  in  connec- 
tion with  events  anterior  to  the  colonial  period. 

In  England  the  great  convulsion  of  the  six- 
teenth century  began  otherwise  than  on  the  Con- 
tinent; it  began  as  revolution  rather  than  ref- 
ormation. The  realm  had  been  ecclesiastically 
governed  by  Rome ;  but  there  now  came  a  polit- 
ical revolt  from  Rome,  not  the  triumph  of  a 
party,  but  the  exploit  of  a  nation.  It  was  due 
less  to  a  revival  of  religious  truth  than  to  an 
exigency  of  the  state.     At  first  the  needs  of  the 


EARLY   ENGLISH    MOVEMENTS.  41 

Church  had  not  so  much  to  do  with  it  as  the 
future  of  the  throne.  Henry  the  Eighth  cared 
little  for  doctrine  and  less  for  liberty  so  he  might 
make  sure  of  the  succession  to  his  own  family. 
General  freedom  of  thought  and  religious  tolera- 
tion were  nearly  as  foreign  to  the  king's  purpose 
then  as  they  had  been  in  any  former  reign.  Re- 
ligious supremacy  was  simply  transferred  from 
the  Vatican  to  the  royal  palace  of  England  ;  her- 
esy was  still  a  penal  offense ;  and  thus  things 
continued  substantially  all  through  Tudor  and 
Stuart  domination.  Along  with  the  Reformation 
gradual  yet  partial  spread  of  Prot-  in 

estantism  came  a  contest  with  mo-  England, 
narchical  and  ecclesiastical  prerogative.  Arbi- 
trary proceedings,  for  the  most  part,  characterized 
monarchy,  while  tyrannical  intolerance  charac- 
terized high  churchism.  James  the  First,  that 
compound  of  pedantry,  arrogance,  and  meanness, 
gave  utterance  to  the  prevailing  sentiment  of  a 
long  line  of  crowned  heads,  most  of  whom  had 
a  more  prudent  tongue,  though  a  mind  no  less 
domineering  than  his.  "  It  is  presumption,"  said 
he,  "and  high  contempt  in  a  subject  to  dispute 
'what  a  king  may  do,  or  say  that  a  king  cannot 
do  this  or  that."  But  such  exuberant  insolence 
was  destined  to  rough  abatement.  Exaction, 
perfidy,  profligacy,  were  to  encounter  deserved 
rebuke.  The  scaffold  gave  significant  warning 
when  it  brought  the  next  reign  to  a  close.     Oli- 


42  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

ver  Cromwell  did  not  hesitate  to  say  that,  meet- 
ing a  king  in  battle,  he  would  shoot  him  as  soon 
as  any  man.  At  the  opening  of  his  second  Par- 
liament he  announced  a  sentiment  than  which 
none  more  just  was  ever  listened  to  by  legisla- 
tors :  "  The  mind  is  the  man.  If  that  be  kept 
pure,  a  man  signifies  somewhat ;  if  not,  I  would 
fain  see  what  difference  there  is  'twixt  him  and 
a  beast."  For  a  century  the  struggle  went  on ; 
slowly  the  spirit  which  was  to  effect  freedom  of 
speech  and  of  the  press  at  last  became  vigorous. 
Fines,  imprisonments,  mutilation,  and  burning 
helped  on  the  movement  toward  securing  a  rep- 
resentative government  —  a  government  not  for 
the  few  but  for  the  many.  Pilgrim  and  Puritan 
found  no  sanction  in  God's  Word  for  kingly  ju- 
risdiction over  men's  thoughts  and  beliefs,  and 
so  left  the  mother  country,  which  had  become 
an  intensely  cruel  stepmother.  For  more  than  a 
century  England  has  now  at  last  had  sovereigns 
who  were  moderately  capable  of  learning  lessons 
from  their  people. 

As  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  so  in  Great 
Britain  there  were,  only  more  numerous,  single 
schemes  during  the  seventeenth  century,  which 
for  the  most  part  proved  transient  and  ineffec- 
tual. ^They  show,  however,  that  evangelistic  duty 
was  gaining  place  in  the  thoughts  of  Christian 
people.  Even  in  the  previous  centur}^  such 
thoughts  were  not  wholly  wanting.    Hakluyt  re- 


EARLY   ENGLISH    MOVEMENTS.  43 

lates   that   on   board    one  of  Frobislier's   fifteen 
ships,    with    which   that    enterprising   navigator 
sailed  (1578)  in  search  of  a  northwest  passage  to 
India,  was  a  minister  by  the  name 
of  Wolfall,  who  had  it  in  charge  not     .  "  *^'    ^ 

'  °  Movements. 

only  to  act  as  chaplain  of  the  fleet, 
but  also  to  remain  for  a  time  in  Greenland  and 
attempt  the  conversion  of  natives  there.    But  the 
expedition  was  a  failure,  and  missionary  work  out 
of  the  question. 

As  time  rolled  on  civil  and  ecclesiastical  op- 
pression set  good  men  to  thinking  of  the  unevan- 
gelized,  who  were  in  a  condition  yet  more  deplor- 
able than  their  own.  Joseph  Alleine,  author  of 
a  book  widely  read,  An  Alarm  to  the  Unconverted^ 
was  an  earnestly  pious  man,  and,  after  being 
ejected  from  his  living  at  Taunton  by  the  Bar- 
tholomew Act,  made  up  his  mind  to  proceed  to 
China  or  some  other  heathen  country  where  he 
might  preach  the  gospel,  which  was  forbidden 
him  to  do  in  England  ;  but  he  did  not  carrj'^ 
out  the  resolution.  The  Rev.  John  Oxenbridge, 
ejected  by  the  same  forenamed  act  of  intolerance, 
went  with  missionary  purposes  to  Surinam,  South 
America,  and  thence  to  the  island  of  Barbadoes. 
He  afterwards  came  to  Boston,  where  he  pub- 
lished a  small  book  entitled  A  Proposition  of 
Propagating  the  Gospel  hy  Christian  Colonies  in 
the  Continent  of  Guiana.  He  died  in  Boston, 
1674.     A  good  deal  of  interest  began  to  be  felt 


44  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

in  the  North  American  tribes,  and,  for  instance, 
Dr.  Lake,  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells,  declared 
that  nothing  but  old  age  kept  him  from  going 
out  as  a  missionary.  The  learned  Dr.  Thomas 
Hyde,  professor  of  Arabic  at  Oxford,  and  after- 
wards professor  of  Hebrew,  proposed  (1677)  that 
Christ  Church,  Oxford,  should  be  used  as  a  train- 
ing college  for  missionary  candidates. 

Oliver  Cromwell  at  an  earlier  date  had  a  scheme 
for  changing  old  Chelsea  College  into  a  sort  of 
Downing  Street  center  of  council  and  of  training 
evangelists  for  the  Indies,  East  and 
*^*'^ii  West,  for  Turkey  and  Scandinavia, 
as  well  as  for  labor  among  Roman 
Catholics.  His  project  was  a  noble  one  —  the 
world  to  be  divided  into  four  great  mission  prov- 
inces, and  the  bureau  of  propagandism  to  have 
four  secretaries  paid  by  the  state.  The  course 
of  political  events  cut  short  the  scheme. 

A  large  number  of  pastors  —  about  seventy  — 
English  and  Scottish,  sent  up  a  petition  to  Parlia- 
ment in  1644,  that  encouragement  be  given  to 
missionaries  who  should  go  out  to  America  and 
the  West  Indies.  To  the  high  honor  of  Crom- 
well and  the  Long  Parliament,  an  ordinance  was 
passed  (1649)  creating  the  "  Corporation  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  New  England" — the 
first  Protestant  missionary  body  in  Great  Britain. 

But  the  man  who  during  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury stands  out  most  conspicuously  in  England 


EARLY    ENGLISH   MOVEMENTS.  45 

for  effective  efforts  to  promote  foreign  evangeli-  f 
zation  is  Sir  Robert  Boyle  '  —  an  ornament  of  his 
country  and  his  age,  a  man  who  could  afford  to 
decline  a  peerage  repeatedly  offered  him,  one  of 
the  founders  of  the  Royal  Society,  born  the  same 
year  that  Lord  Bacon  died  (1626),  eminent  for 
his  religious  character  and  his  beneficence.  He 
amply  rewarded  Dr.  Edward  Pocock  for  rendering 
into  Arabic  the  work  of  Grotius, 
De  Veritate  Christiance  Meligionis, 
which,  as  mentioned  in  a  former  lecture,  was 
written  with  reference  to  aiding  missionaries  in 
the  East.  Sir  Robert  assumed  the  entire  ex- 
pense of  printing  that  work,  and  then  took  pains 
to  have  it  circulated  in  countries  where  the  Ara- 
bic is  spoken.  One  department  of  his  labors  in 
diffusing  Sacred  Scriptures  was  the  publishing  at 
his  own  expense  of  the  four  Gospels  and  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles  in  Malay.  The  printing 
was  executed  (1677)  in  Roman  character  at 
Oxford  under  the  superintendence  of  Dr.  Hyde, 
whose  name  has  just  been  mentioned.  Boyle's 
last  will  and  testament  devoted  five  thousand 
four  hundred  pounds  to  the  propagation  of  Chris- 
tianity among  unevangelized  and  unenlightened 
peoples  —  the  largest  Protestant  bequest  for  such 
a  purpose  which,  up  to  the  date  of  his  death, 
(1691)  had  ever  been  made.  Not  long  after  that 
event  Dean  Prideaux,  a  friend  of  Boyle  and  au- 


'  Not  Peter  Boyle,  according  to  Braur,  Beitrage.    1835.     S.  57. 


46  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

thor  of  a  well-known  work,  The  Connexion  of  the 
History  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments^  addressed 
(1695)  written  proposals  to  Dr.  Tennison,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  for  the  promulgation  of 
Christianity  in  the  East  Indies.  While  no  very 
marked  known  results  may  have  followed  from 
any  of  the  forenamed  plans  and  endeavors,  they 
showed  that  our  Saviour's  last  command  was 
pressing  more  and  more  upon  the  attention  of 
thoughtful  Christian  men. 

In  the  New  England  colonies  there  was  from 
the  first  a  missionary  element.  Early  emigration 
to  our  shores  proceeded  more  largely  than  any 
other  similar  movement  from  religious  considera- 
jtions,  and  among  those  was  the  evangelizing  of 
native   tribes.     Political   and   social 

ecu  ar      reasons  for  the  movement  were,  in- 
Elements.  ' 

deed,  abundant.   Papal  exactions  and 

persecutions  had  given  place  to  others  little  less 
intolerable.  Unity  of  creed  and  uniformity  of 
worship  were  still  stringently  enforced.  Even 
under  Elizabeth  worship  according  to  rubric  or 
imprisonment  for  life  was  the  alternative.  "I 
will  have,"  said  the  despicable  James  I,  at  the 
Hampton  Court  Conference,  where  a  calm  con- 
sideration of  most  weighty  and  most  reasonable 
measures  might  have  been  expected,  "  I  will  have 
one  doctrine,  one  discipline,  one  religion  in  sub- 
stance and  ceremony.  Never  speak  more  to  that 
point,  how  far  you  are  bound  to  obey."     Down 


EARLY    ENGLISH    MOVEMENTS.  47 

went  the  coarse,  insolent  Bancroft  upon  his  knees. 
"Your  Majesty  speaks  by  the  special  assistance 
of  God's  Spirit,"  said  he ;  "I  protest  my  heart 
melteth  for  joy  that  Almighty  God,  of  his  singular 
mercy,  has  given  us  such  a  king  as  since  Christ's 
time  has  not  been."  In  his  gushing  sycophancy 
the  bishop  forgot  Nero,  of  the  first  century,  also 
Philip  II,  who  had  been  in  his  grave  only  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century.  What  man  with  a  spark  of 
manliness  in  him,  to  say  nothing  of  conscience, 
would  not  prefer  a  wilderness  and  a  neighbor- 
hood of  savages  to  a  country  where  royal  procla- 
mations had  the  force  of  law,  where  no  right  of 
independent  opinion  or  utterance  could  be  toler- 
ated, where  no  privilege  of  separate  worship  was 
conceded,  where  the  professed  Church  of  Christ 
countenanced  such  a  son  of  Belial  as  Archbishop 
Laud,  and  civil  government  sanctioned  such  a 
demon  as  Jeffreys?  The  island  had  no  clergy- 
men of  greater  worth  than  the  hundreds  who 
were  driven  from  pulpit  and  living  by  the  rigors 
of  coercive  conformity.  For  a  Nonconformist  to 
remain  in  England  meant  ruin  to  him.  "Infa- 
mous "  is  the  appropriate  running  title  for  many 
chapters  in  the  history  of  Tudor  and  Stuart 
dynasties. 

But  He  who  permitted  the  first  ten  persecu- 
tions under  Roman  emperors,  permitted  ten  dec- 
ades of  scathing  intolerance  under  British  rule ; 
and  far-reaching,  beneficent  results  were  in  the 


48  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

divine  mind.  But  for  a  tyranny  that  made  Eng- 
land intolerable  to  the  choicest  of  her  citizens, 
North  America  might  have  been  a  Spanish  or  a 
French  domain,  and  might  have  been  Catholic,  as 
is  South  America.  There  now  appears  to  have 
been  in  the  purpose  of  Heaven  the 

Divine  .  »       .    ,  ,.      .     „ 

Design.  planting  of  mighty  evangelistic  forces 
between  the  two  great  oceans.  Al- 
ready there  have  arisen  in  the  United  States  more 
than  fifty  (52)  foreign  missionary  societies,  not 
including  sundry  independent  movements,  which 
now  have  in  their  own  various  fields  over  four 
thousand  (4,159)  American  laborers  and  over  six- 
teen thousand  (16,632)  native  assistants.  Their 
mission  churches  number  over  four  thousand 
(4,113),  and  their  communicants,  four  hundred 
and  fifty-one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  eighty- 
nine.  Their  schools,  six  thousand  eight  hun- 
dred in  number,  embrace  about  two  hundred 
and  sixty-six  thousand  (266,026)  pupils.  Native 
contributions  for  evangelical  work  amount  to  an 
annual  sum  of  about  six  hundred  and  twenty-eight 
thousand  dollars  ($627,687),  while  the  home  re- 
ceipts of  those  societies  are  nearly  five  million 
of  dollars  ($4,839,703)  per  annum.  These  items 
collectively  are  about  one-fifth  of  the  totals  in  the 


EARLY    ENGLISH    MOVEMENTS.  49 

foreign  missionary  work  of  all  Protestant  Chris- 
tendom at  the  present  date. 

After  about  twenty  years  from  the  landing  on 
Plymouth  Rock  immigration  from  Old  England 
to  New  England  pretty  much  ceased  for  a  time. 
During  that  score  of  years  probably  not  more 
than  a  tenth  as  many  men,  women,  and  children 
arrived  as  the  present  number  of  communicants 
in  our  foreign  mission  churches  just  named. 

We  now  turn  to  some  details  in  the  genesis 
and  progress  of  this  gratifying  development.  One 
noteworthy  feature  of  many  modern  enterprises 
of  discovery,  colonization,  and  commerce  has  been 
an  alleged  purpose  to  communicate 
Christianity  to  heathen  and  Moham-     ..,  ,. 

•'  Evangelism. 

medan  countries.  Sheer  adventure 
and  sheer  greed  of  gold  have  alike  assumed  this 
religious  disguise.  The  plea  has  served  to  give 
an  air  of  dignity  to  movements  that  were  purely 
secular,  and  to  secure  for  them  an  amount  of 
patronage  and  popularity  which  would  have  been 
wanting  but  for  this  suborning  of  conscience. 
Portuguese  explorers  of  the  western  coast  of 
Africa  and  of  the  East  Indies,  in  erecting  crosses 
on  newly  discovered  lands,  not  only  thought  to 
set  up  proof  of  the  extension  of  their  national 
domain,  but  at  the  same  time  beguiled  themselves 
with  the  idea  that  they  were  thus  extending  the 
earthly  dominion  of  the  King  of  kings.  Colum- 
bus, true  indeed  to  one  noble  purpose,  was  yet  a 


60  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

man  of  hallucinations.  While  intensely  eager  to 
find  gold  and  pearls,  he  cajoled  himself  with  the 
dream  of  rescuing  Jerusalem  from  infidels;  and 
with  the  pretense  of  Christianizing  savages  he 
exported  them  into  slavery.  He  and  his  asso- 
ciates and  his  successors  put  forth  the  same  pre- 
text while  subjecting  Lucayans  and  other  in- 
habitants of  the  new  world  to  an  exterminating 
slavery  in  their  own  lands.  On  the  part  of  early 
Dutch  establishments  in  the  Orient  there  was, 
indeed,  less  of  self-imposition  and  more  of  honest 
religious  purpose;  yet  the  Netherlands  East  India 
and  West  India  Companies  were  from  the  first 
supremely  intent  on  the  profits  of  commerce. 

Far  more  deeply  and  consistently  honest  in 
their  evangelistic  professions  were  the  great  body 
of  early  immigrants  to  New  England.  It  would 
indeed  be  a  stretch  of  charity  to  suppose  that 
the  Jameses  were  particularly  thoughtful  about 
the  conversion  of  Indians,  and  it  would  be  the 
height  of  absurdity  to  attribute  any  such  serious 
thought  to  the  Charleses.  But  charters  submit- 
ted for  their  signatures  were  prepared  by  men 
and  for  men,  some  of  whom  were  swayed  by  reli- 
gious motives.  For  example,  the  instrument  which 
Charles  I  granted  to  the  Massachusetts  Colony 
^">Ti^n  1628,  provided  that  the  people  from  England 
"may  be  so  religiously,  peaceably,  and  civilly 
governed  as  their  good  life  and  orderly  conver- 
sation  may  win   and   incite    the    natives  of  the 


EARLY    ENGLISH    MOVEMENTS.  61 

country  to  the  knowledge  and  obedience  of  the 
only  true  God  and  Saviour  of  mankind  and  the 
Christian  faith,  which  in  our  royal  intention  and 
the  adventurers'  free  profession  is  the  principal 
end  of  the  plantation."  The  company  that  was 
organized  under  this  charter  speak  of  the  propa- 
gation of  the  gospel  as  "  the  thing  they  do  profess 
above  all  to  be  their  aim  in  settling  this  planta- 
tion."    Higginson,  who  went  to  Salem,  declared, 

■  "We  go  to  practice  the  positive  part  of  church 
reformation  and   propagate  the  gospel  in  Amer- 

vica."  So,  too,  the  Pilgrims,  while  in  Holland 
and  when  weighing  the  matter  of  emigration  to 
America,  avowed  distinctly  a  desire  not  only  to 
enlarge  the  dominions  of  the  English  state,  but 
the  Church  of  Christ  also,  if  the  Lord  had  a  peo- 
ple among  the  natives  whither  he  would  bring 
them.  The  original  seal  of  the  Massachusetts 
Colony  embodied  the  foreign  missionary  idea,  as 
if  that  were  distinctive  in  their  enterprise.  It 
represented  an  Indian  uttering  the  Macedonian 
cry,  "  Come  ovei;  and  help  us." 

Mention  has  been  made  of  a  corporation  cre- 
ated by  the  Long  Parliament  (1649)  for  the 
propagation  of  the  gospel  in  New  England.  It 
was  at  the  same  time  directed  that  notice  thereof 
be  given  from  pulpits  and  that  collections  in  aid 
of  the  object  be  taken  up.  The  army  made  con- 
tributions. No  other  foreign  missionary  move- 
ment  ever  came   so   near   being   national   in  its 


52  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

character.  After  the  Restoration  a  new  charter 
was  granted,  and  Sir  Robert  Boyle  continued 
for  thirty  years  at  the  head  of  the  corporation. 
The  foregoing  notices,  miscellaneous  and  not  in- 
timately connected  with  one  another,  yet  serve  to 
show  that  during  the  seventeenth  century  there 

were  minds  in  the  Church  of  Eng- 

Pilgrim  and      i       j  j  •  •  i  p 

„    .  land,  and  an  increasing   number  ot 

Puritan.  '  o 

such,  to  which  the  evangelization  of 
heathen  tribes  was  not  wholly  foreign,  and  that 
among  Dissenters  it  ripened  into  an  acknowledged 
duty  and  a  pronounced  purpose.  Among  none  of 
them,  nor  among  other  Protestants  of  the  period 
elsewhere,  was  that  more  distinctly  the  case  than 
on  the  part  of  early  Pilgrim  and  Puritan  colonists 
in  New  England. 

Indians  attracted  the  attention  of  colonists  at 
once  upon  their  arrival.  Within  the  limits  of 
the  New  England  plantations  there  were  about 
twenty  tribes  of  aboriginal  inhabitants,  allied, 
however,  in  language,  manners,  and  religion.  It 
.  is   estimated   that    they  numbered 

fifty  thousand,  of  whom  not  far 
from  twelve  thousand  were  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  two  colonies  along  the  coast  of  Massachu- 
setts—  "the  veriest  ruins  of  mankind  on  the  face 
of  the  earth,"  "  desolate  outcasts,"  "  infinitely 
barbarous ; "  so,  at  least,  the  fathers  pronounced 
them.  They  were  devoid  of  delicacy  in  regard 
to  food  and  many  other  things.     Sentiment  calls 


EARLY   ENGLISH    MOVEMENTS.  53 

the  Indian  "  a  child  of  nature,"  but  surely  he  has 
an  unwise  mother.  They  were  often  at  war  with 
one  another,  were  revengeful,  exceedingly  averse 
to  labor  —  putting  all  drudgery  upon  the  women, 
who  were  sometimes  more  cruel  than  the  men. 
Gambling  was  their  chief  amusement,  and  in  that 
they  were  desperate.  They  had  no  poetry,  no 
songs,  no  instrument  of  music.  Their  language, 
abounding  in  consonants,  was  devoid  of  euphony, 
as  many  of  the  geographical  terms  now  in  use 
by  us  sufficiently  show.  It  belongs  to  the  agglu- 
tinative family,  and  has  words  of  great  length, 
fifteen  syllables  not  being  a  peculiarity.  Here  is 
one  with  forty-three  letters  —  kummogkodonattoot- 
tummooetiteaongannunnonash  —  and  all  it  means 
is  simply  "our  question."  The  structural  fea- 
tures render  it  very  difficult  of  acquisition  by 
an  Englishman. 

In  the  line  of  Christian  labor  among  Indians 
the  man  most  widely  known,  the  representative 
missionary  of  the  seventeenth  century,  was  John 
Eliot.  He  was  born  in  the  year  1604,  at  Wid- 
ford,'  County  of  Hertford,  about  twenty-five  miles 
north  from  London.  At  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge he  distinguished  himself  in  philology,  tak- 
ing his  A.B.  at  Jesus  College,  1622.^  He  served 
for  a  time  as  usher  in  the  school  of  Rev.  Thomas 
Hooker,  so  well  known  afterwards  as  one  of  the 

'  Note  7.  ^  Note  8. 


64  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

chief  fathers  of  New  England  and  pastor  of  the 
first  church  in  the  city  of  Hartford.  Having 
been  thoroughly  converted,  without  which  great 
spiritual  change  no  man  should  think  of  entering 
Eliot  ^^^  Christian  ministry,  Eliot  made 
in  preparation   to    become  a   preacher. 

England,  g^j^  England  was  then  no  place  for 
a  minister  of  the  gospel  who  could  not  in  con- 
science conform  to  an  unauthorized  hierarchy, 
nor  submit,  more  especially,  to  the  outrageous 
proceedings  of  Archbishop  Laud.  Choice  lay  be- 
tween being  whipped,  branded,  pilloried,  having 
the  nostrils  slit  and  the  ears  mutilated,  or  ex- 
patriation. In  the  year  1631,  and  at  the  age 
of  twenty-seven,  Eliot  arrived  in  Boston.  In  the 
absence  of  Wilson,  pastor  of  the  church  there, 
he  officiated  as  preacher  till  his  removal  the 
next  year  (October,  1632)  to  Roxbury,  where 
for  nearly  sixty  years  he  was  pastor  of  the  First 
Church. 

Biographical  notices  of  Eliot  as  a  missionary 
usually  fail,  either  through  misapprehension  or 
careless  omission,  to  bring  duly  to  notice  the  fact 

of  his  standing  in  this  intimate  re- 
E  lot  s        lation  to  a  people  who  had  engaged 

his  services  before  he  left  England 
and,  of  course,  before  they  followed  him.  He 
was  never  long  absent  from  that  people.  During 
a  considerable  part  of  his  fifty-nine  years  of  offi- 
cial relation  to  them  he  had   no  colleague.     He 


EARLY    ENGLISH    MOVEMENTS  55 

served  as  both  pastor  and  teacher.  Personal  la- 
bor among  the  Indians  did  not  begin  till  fifteen 
years  after  his  settlement  at  Roxbury.  In  his 
occasional  absences  from  the  pulpit  neighboring 
ministers  volunteered  to  supply  his  place.  The 
Roxbury  people  paid  his  salary  —  sixty  pounds 
sterling  —  and  his  missionary  work  was  carried 
on  not  only  with  their  knowledge,  but,  so  far  as 
appears,  with  their  hearty  approval.  No  evidence 
of  dissatisfaction  on  their  part  has  come  down 
to  us,  and  it  was  particularly  creditable  to  them 
that  they  were  ready  to  share  with  rude  sons  of 
the  wilderness  the  time  and  strength  of  their  own 
spiritual  guide. 

Eliot  wisely  set  himself  to  the  task  of  master- 
ing the  Indian  language.  It  was  done  in  the 
midst  of  parochial  duties.  But  what  a  task  it 
was !  To  what  auxiliaries  could  he  turn  ?  No  dic- 
tionary, grammar,  analysis,  vocabulary,  or  other 
help  was  at  hand.     He  took  into  his  ^, 

family  an  Indian,  who  served  the  Language, 
purpose  not  so  much  of  teacher  as 
of  a  mere  mouthpiece ;  and  through  the  slow 
process  of  noting  word  by  word  as  it  fell  from 
the  lips  of  that  untutored  man,  observing  the  sig- 
nifications and  relative  positions,  Eliot  effected 
an  entrance  into  the  strange  vernacular.  Once 
within  that  new  domain,  he  found  that  on  the 
score  of  analogies  or  of  treasure  it  was  as  unlike 
those  tongues  previously  known  to  him  as  this 


66  PROTESTANT    MISSIONS. 

country,  then  so  rude,  was  unlike  the  well-culti- 
vated soil  of  Old  England.  From  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific  was  an  unbroken  wilderness.  To 
reach  some  of  the  Indian  abodes  visited  by  Eliot, 
though  at  short  distances,  required  as  much  time 
as  is  now  needed  to  reach  the  remotest  parts  of 
New  England.  In  order  to  visit,  for  instance,  the 
Nashaway  Indians  at  Lancaster,  Eliot  was  obliged 
to  hire  a  native  to  break  down  the  bushes  before 
him  and  notch  the  trees  that  he  might  find  his 
way  to  and  fro. 

And  how  far  advanced  in  local  cultivation  was 
Roxbury  itself  at  the  time  its  pastor  gathered 
the  first  church  of  converted  Indians  ?  The  tract 
lying  along  what  is  now  known  as  the  beautiful 
street,  Walnut  Avenue,  was  called  the  Fox  Holes, 
and  a  little  farther  on  toward  Grove  Hall  were 
the  Bear  Marsh  and  the  Wolf  Traps,  and  the  town 
was  still  paying  a  bounty  of  ten  shillings  for  every 
wolf's  head.  Earlier  (1655)  the  bounty  had  been 
thirty  shillings.  Eliot,  thoroughly  imbued  with 
the  spirit  of  his  office,  appreciating  chartered  dec- 
larations and  the  possibilities  of  his  position,  set 
himself  to  a  systematic  preparation  for  the  work. 
He  proceeded  with  much  deliberation  and  not 
without  due  consultation.  "It  is  hard,"  he  ob- 
served, "  to  look  on  the  day  of  small  things  with 
patience  enough." 

And  what  was  it  that  moved  him  to  his  mis- 
sionary service  ?     What  sustained  him  in  the  pro- 


EARLY    ENGLISH    MOVEMENTS.  57 

longed  endeavor  ?  Was  it  from  a  clarion  call  of 
the  press  or  the  platform?  Were  there  great 
convocations  to  welcome  and  compliment  him? 
Were  his  preaching  excursions  pleasant  vacation 
jaunts?  At  the  time  he  started  on  this  under- 
taking there  was  not  a  Protestant  missionary  so- 
ciety on  the  face  of  the  earth.    From 

no  quarter  were   pledges  of  pecun-      .       *^ 

^  XT       o  ir  Incentives. 

iary  aid  tendered.  Interest  in  the 
spiritual  welfare  of  wild  aborigines  was  not  all- 
pervading  through  the  community.  The  town 
records  of  Roxbury  during  the  first  few  years  of 
its  history  make  mention  of  sums  paid  for  driv- 
ing away  Indians  from  the  neighborhood.  Eliot's 
conjecture  —  one  which  was  entertained  by  Bou- 
dinot  in  his  Star  in  the  West^  and  by  other  writers 
before  and  since  —  that  our  Indian  tribes  are  de- 
scended from  the  ten  tribes  of  Israel,  was  a  pleas- 
ing but  not  primary  thought  with  him.  Once 
more  we  inquire,  What  was_  the  inspiring  motive 
with  Eliot  ?  Let  him  speak  for  himself :  "  God 
first  put  into  my  heart  a  compassion  for  their 
poor  souls  and  a  desire  to  teach  them  to  know 
Christ  and  to  bring  them  into  his  kingdom."  ' 
This  recognized  father  of  American  missions  be- 
gan work  at  his  own  charges.  Afterwards  (1647) 
a  gratuity  of  ten  pounds  was  voted  him  by  the 
Massachusetts  court,  and  later  he  received  a  sal- 
ary from  the  society  in  England,  first  of  twenty 

■  Note  9. 


68  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

pounds,  which  was  increased  to  forty  pounds  and 
then  to  fifty  pounds.  The  encouraging  sympathy 
shown  him  afterwards  did  not  greet  him  at  first. 
Even  opposition  to  some  extent  was  encountered, 


IV 

JOHN  ELIOT 

The  chapter  preceding  this  one  was  given  to 
incipient  missionary  endeavors  of  our  English 
ancestors  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  we 
began  a  study  of  John  Eliot  and  his  labors. 
We  resume  that  study  today.  We  contemplate 
him  in  his  volunteer,  extra-parochial  undertak- 
ing. It  is  the  year  1646  and  the  month  of 
October.  He  has  mastered  the  native  language 
well  enough  to  speak  to  the  In- 
dians intelligibly  on  divine  things.  '^  e  o  s. 
He  has  already  conversed  with  some  of  them 
in  a  way  that  interests  them  to  have  a  visit  at 
their  wigwams.  With  three  English  companions 
he  goes  out  to  Nonantum,  four  or  five  miles 
from  his  house.  He  conducts  a  service  or  con- 
ference that  lasts  three  hours,  the  sermon  being 
an  hour  and  a  quarter  in  length  —  the  first 
Protestant  sermon  ever  preached  in  a  North 
American  language.  Prayer  he  offers  in  Eng- 
lish, not   feeling  as   yet   sufficiently  at   home  in 


60  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

the  vernacular  of  the  natives  to  employ  that  in 
public  devotions.  This,  not  unnaturally,  sug- 
gests the  thought,  on  the  part  of  one  Indian  at 
least,  that  it  was  of  no  use  to  pray  except  in 
English,  as  the  Being  thus  addressed  would  not 
tyovrr'  lA^r^itinderstand  the  Indian  tongue.'-  Another  visit 
•was  called  for  and  then  another,  and  so  on  till 
the  visits  became  habitual.  The  popular  im- 
pression  is  that  the  climate  of  New  England 
has  become  milder  since  the  colonial  period. 
However  that  may  be,  it  is  recorded  that  dur- 
ing the  winter  of  1646  there  was  no  severe 
cold  and  that  no  snow  fell  in  Boston  and  the 
vicinit}^  nor  did  any  day  appointed  for  visits 
to  the  Indians  prove  unfavorable.^ 

It   was   evident    from    the   first,   and   increas- 
j  ingly  evident  as  time  advanced,  that  truth  took 
effect  upon  the    native   mind ;    that  there  was  a 
'  sense    of    guilt    and    a    deepening  felt   need   of 
I  pardon,  and   thus  preparation  to  accept  the  dis- 
/  closures  of  grace  through   Jesus  Christ.      Ques- 
tions —  some    of    them    not    easily    answered  — 
were  asked   by   the  Indians  which   showed   that 
serious  thought  was  aroused  and  that  an  effect- 
ive leaven  had  begun  to  work.     Interest  on  the 
part  of  these   Indians  and  others  elsewhere  was 
not,  indeed,  universal.     Some   of  the   sagamores 
and    conjurers    vehemently    opposed    our    evan- 


V  'Note  10. 
^  Ellis'  History  of  Roxhury,  p.  76. 


JOHN    ELIOT.  61 

gelist.  '^  Philip,  the  Narraganset  sachem,  once 
treated  Eliot  with  scorn,  taking  hold  of  his 
button  and  saying  that  he  cared  no  more  for 
the  gospel  than  for  that  buttony  But  at 
Nonantum  a  desire  for  social  improvement 
manifested  itself.  Better  clothing  and  some 
implements  of  industry  were  called  for ;  chil- 
dren were  presented  for  instruction ;  the  Sab- 
bath began  to  be  recognized  and  observed; 
family  worship  was  instituted.  It  appears  that 
for  a  long  time  Eliot  made  fortnightly  tours, 
preaching  and  catechising  the  children ;  then  he 
would  alternate,  holding  a  service  one  week  in 
the  cabin  of  Waban,  a  headman  at  Nonantum, 
and  the  next  week  in  the  cabin  of  Cutshamakin, 
a  sachem  at  Neponset,  Dorchester.  His  visits 
were  extended  to  natives  within  the  limits  of 
what  is  now  Worcester  County  and  Plymouth 
County,  Massachusetts,  and  to  the  northeastern 
corner  of  Connecticut. 

At    length    the    Indians    became    desirous   of 
better   habitations,   better    organized   social   life, 
and    something    like    a    municipal    government. 
Under  Eliot's  leadership  they  were 
provided    with    a    place    of    settle-    ^^' ^^^  *°" 

^  ,  ^  ^  Developing, 

ment     at     Natick,    eighteen     miles 

from  Boston  —  judiciously  farther  from  English 
neighbors  than  Nonantum.  ,  He  drafted  a  con- 
stitution for  them,  based  upon  the  Mosaic  civil 
polity,    and    the    community    made    progress    in 


62  PBOTESTANT   IVnSSIONS. 

self-government,  as  evinced  by  wholesome  legis- 
lation and  a  good  degree  of  executive  fidelitjy 
They  began  to  till  the  ground ;  they  built 
houses  instead  of  wigwams;  they  put  up  one 
building  fifty  feet  long  by  twentj^-five  in  width, 
which  was  to  be  town  property,  designed  for  a 
school  and  a  place  of  worship,  while  the  upper 
room  served  for  storage  and  a  place  for  Eliot's 
bed.  This  settlement  was  on  both  sides  of 
Charles  River,  over  which  they  constructed  a 
footbridge,  eighty  feet  long  and  in  the  middle 
nine  feet  high.  In  starting  such  more  compli- 
cated and  extensive  works,  aid  from  an  English 
carpenter  was  needed  for  a  day  or  two ;  but 
the  natives  showed  aptitude,  and  their  opera- 
tions were  notable  achievements  for  men  re- 
cently so  torpid  and  to  whom  labor  had  been 
so  distasteful.  These  industries  Eliot  regarded 
as  needful  results  and  helpful  accompaniments 
of  the  new  religious  life  that  was  awakened. 
He  did  not  see,  as  Carne  remarks,'  that  they 
must  be  civilized  ere  they  could  be  Christian- 
ized. The  best  kind  of  help  to  be  encouraged 
everywhere  on  missionary  ground  is  self-help. 

Of  Eliot's  published  writings  not  missionary 
in  their  character  I  say  nothing,  except  that 
they  were  not  of  eminent  value.  His  pro- 
ductions that  relate  to  the  Indians  deserve 
special  notice.      These  consist   of  a  primer   and 

^  Lives  of  Eminent  Missionaries,  I,  p.  12. 


JOHN    ELIOT.  63 

a  grammar  auxiliary  to  acquiring  the  language. 
He  also  made  contributions  of  Christian  liter- 
ature to  the  native  language,  such  as  a  cate- 
chism,   or    rather    catechisms,    and 

the    Psalms     of     David     in    meter,       ,'  "ary 

Labors, 
besides  a   translation  of  two  works 

by  Thomas  Shepard,  of  Cambridge,  The  Sincere 
Convert  and  The  Sound  Believer,  Baxter's  Call 
to  the  Unconverted,  and  The  Practice  of  Piety 
(1686),  written  by  Lewis  Bayly,'  a  book  which 
a  century  since  (1792)  had  reached  the  seventy- 
first  edition. 

But  Eliot's  great  literary  work  was  the 
translation  of  our  sacred  Scriptures  —  a  truly 
missionary  Bible  —  and  a  great  work  it  was 
indeed,  "  which,"  he  well  remarks,  "  I  look  at 
as  a  sacred  and  holy  work,  and  to  be  regarded 
with  much  fear  and  reverence."  Viewed  in 
the  light  of  all  the  circumstances,  it  must  be 
pronounced  a  unique,  if  not  an  un- 
paralleled,  achievement.      Eliot   en-    ^      V  ^. 

.       ,  -r,  .1  Translation, 

tertained  true  Protestant  ideas  re- 
garding the  authority  and  value  of  God's  Word 
and  the  right  of  every  people  under  heaven  to 
have  this  richest  of  treasures  in  their  own 
mother  tongue  and  in  their  own  hands.  He 
knew,  as  we  know,  that  the  history  of  gospel 
propagation  and  of  revived    Christian  life  is,  in 


'  Came  credits  the  work  mistakenly  to  Baxter.     Lives,  I,  p.  45. 


64  PROTESTANT    MISSIONS. 

a  marked  degree,  the  history  of  Bible  transla- 
tion and  circnlation.  V^Vhere  has  there  ever 
been  a  spiritual  movement,  healthful  and  de- 
cided, that  did  not  stand  connected  with 
efforts  to  give  currency  to  the  Word  of  God? 
(Withhold  or  withdraw  that  Word  and  true 
religion  declines  till  it  becomes  extinct.  The 
populous  islands  of  Ja£an  and  extensive  por- 
tions of  South  America  were  once  nominally 
Christian,  but  the  Holy  Scriptures  were  not 
given  to  the  people,  and  the  light  that  seemed 
to  be  kindled  went  out.  This  inspired,  this 
infallible,  record  of  religious  truth  must  be 
accessible,  or  no  adeq^uately  aggressive  power, 
no  self-perpetuating  vitalit}-,  will  exist.  Eliot 
appreciated  the  necessities  of  the  case  and  set 
himself  to  the  needful  task.  He  was  a  man  of 
prayer,  and  acted  on  his  own  maxim  as  thus 
laid  down,  "When  we  would  accomplish  any 
great  things,  the  best  policy  is  to  work  by  an 
engine  that  the  world  knows  nothing  of." 

Think    of    the    comparative    difficulties   which 
surrounded  him.      Glance  for  a  moment  at  sim- 
ilar undertakings   before    this.      Go   back   to   a 
period  anterior   to    Christ's  coming. 

Examine   the    Septuagint,   executed 
rassments.  ^        °       ' 

by  numerous  colaborers  at  the  re- 
quest of  Ptolemy  and  under  his  royal  patron- 
age; but  it  was  the  Old  Testament  alone  and 
translated    into    the     Greek,    a    language    then 


JOHN    ELIOT.  65 

prevalent  in  the  civilized  world.  Look  at  the 
twenty  years'  labor  of  Jerome,  late  in  the 
fourth  century  of  our  era,  with  much-needed 
assistance,  amidst  his  scholarly  retirement  at 
Bethlehem ;  yet  he  rendered  Holy  Scripture 
^  into  the  tongue  then  most  widely  diffused,  and 
'  thus  the  Vulgate  came  into  being.  It  was  into 
his  vernacular  and  with  many  auxiliaries  that 
the  venerable  Bede,  in  the  eighth  century, 
translated  a  part  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  To 
Peter  Waldo,  Europe,  at  the  close  of  the 
twelfth  century,  owed  the  earliest  translation 
into  a  modern  language  of  some  portions  of 
these  sacred  writings ;  but  Waldo  was  a  man 
of  wealth,  who  could  command  his  time  and 
with  little  effort  render  the  Latin  into  his 
mother  tongue,  the  French.  When  Luther 
finished  his  version  —  that,  too,  into  the  lan- 
guage his  fathers  and  his  countrymen  spoke  — 
he  had  Melanchthon,  one  of  the  ripest  scholars 
of  the  age,  to  assist  in  its  revision.  At  his 
side  was  Cruciger  with  Hebrew  and  Chaldee 
in  hand,  Bugenhagen  or  Pomeranius  with  the 
Vulgate,  and  Justus  Jonas  lending  the  aid  of 
his  acquaintance  with  rabbinic  lore.  Each 
gave  his  opinion  on  the  passages  examined, 
and  Master  George  Borer  kept  the  record  J  j 
But  here  is  John  Eliot,  amidst  primeval 
forests  and  all  the  privations  and  solicitudes 
of    early    colonial    life,    with     parochial     labors 


66  PEOTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

quite  sufficient,  slightly  cheered  by  social  aid, 
mastering  the  language  of  a  barbarous  people 
that  did  not  possess  a  vestige  of  literature, 
even  to  the  amount  of  an  uncouth  song.'  Into 
that  vehicle,  not  of  thought  so  much  as  of  sav- 
age wants,  he  transfuses  the  wealth  of  God's 
Word.  Almost  no  assistance  was  at  hand. 
The  entire  translation,  says  Cotton  Mather, 
was  executed  with  a  single  pen.  It  appeared 
only  thirty-five  years  after  the  version  of  King 
James  in  English,  the  one  now  so  widely  read. 
The  New  Testament  was  published  in  Septem- 
ber, 1661,  soon  after  the  restoration  of  Charles 
the  Second.  The  Old  Testament  followed  in 
1663.  The  corporation  in  England,  which  has 
been  mentioned,  sent  from  that  country  press 
and  types  and  the  needed  materials  for  print- 
ing. Copies  became  at  length  very  scarce, 
many  having  been  burned  or  otherwise  de- 
stroyed in  the  Indian  wars.  A  second  edition 
of  the  New  Testament  in  1680  and  of  the  Old 
Testament  in  1685  were  printed  at  Cambridge. 
The  work  is  at  present  extremely  rare,  and 
a   perfect   sample   will    command    an   extremely 


,  '  It  differed  so  much  from  other  Indian  tongues  that  this 
'translation  could  not  be  useful  to  tribes  outside  of  Massachu- 
setts. Hook,  in  liis  Ecclesiastical  Biography,  IV,  p.  564,  makes 
mistake  as  follows,  Eliot  "  translated  the  Bible  into  the  language 
of  the  Six  Nations."  Steel,  in  Doing  Good,  p.  86,  remarks,  Eliot 
"translated  the  Scriptures  into  the  Choctaw  language." 


JOHN    ELIOT.  67 

high   price  —  a   thousand    dollars    and   upwards. 
No  man  now  living  can  read  the  book. 

Rare  perseverance  did  Eliot  exhibit.  Dur- 
ing the  first  thousand  years  of  our  era  the 
Bible  was  translated  into  onlj'-  ten  different 
languages,  the  rate  being  one  for  every  cen- 
tury ;  yet  none  of  them,  nor  any  one  of  the 
more  than    four    hundred   versions 

since  made  into  different  tongues,     .        eer  ess 

°  Achievement, 

furnislies  probably  so  much  to  ad- 
mire in  the  faith  and  industry  of  one  man  tri- 
umphing over  difficulties.  At  present  there  are 
between  forty  and  fifty  versions  in  the  vernac- 
ulars of  America.  What  two  hundred  years 
ago  must  have  been  —  what  must  now  be — the 
holy  satisfaction  of  John  Eliot  in  the  remem- 
brance of  his  devout  studies  and  quickened 
graces  while  thus  engaged,  and  knowing  that 
he  has  been  the  instrument  in  God's  provi- 
dence of  presenting  to  aboriginal  inhabitants 
of  New  England  the  first  Bible  ever  printed 
on  our  continent,  the  first  translation  of  that 
volume  in  this  hemisphere  since  holy  men  of 
God  began  to  speak  as  they  were  moved  by 
the  Holy  Ghost  —  indeed,  the  first  instance  in 
which  the  entire  Bible  was  ever  given  to  a 
barbarous  people  as  a  means  of  their  conver- 
sion! Columbus  made  known  to  the  old  world 
the  greatest  of  geographical  discoveries ;   to  the 


68  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

new  world  Eliot  gave  the  greatest  of  treasures 
possessed  by  the  old.  His  preaching  and  trans- 
lations were  blessed.  Conversions  took  place. 
Indubitable  tokens  of  religious  sensibility  and 
of  changed  habits  appeared,  a  signal  triumph  of 
truth  and  grace  over  stolid  men  of  the  woods. 
Expressions  like  the  following  were  employed 
in  their  prayers :  "  Take  away,  Lord,  my  stony 
heart ; "  "  Wash,  Lord,  my  soul ;  "  "  Lord,  lead 
me  when  I  die  to  heaven."  Eliot  states  that 
these  were  not  learned  by  rote,  for  he  had 
never  used  them  in  his  prayers  at  their  meet- 
ings. Cotton  Mather,  speaking  of  a  visit  paid 
by   him  and  others  to   one  of  the 

Conversions       ,  v     ci.  •  t    j-  v 

towns  01  "  praymg  Indians,  so- 
called,  observes :  "  To  see  and 
hear  Indians  opening  their  mouths  and  lifting 
up  their  hands  and  eyes  in  prayer  to  the  living 
God,  calling  on  him  by  his  name  Jehovah  in 
the  mediation  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  this  for  a 
good  while  together ;  to  see  and  hear  them  ex- 
horting one  another  from  the  Word  of  God; 
to  see  and  hear  them  confessing  the  name  of 
Christ  Jesus  and  their  own  sinfulness  —  sure 
this  is  more  than  usual !  And  though  they 
spoke  in  a  language  of  which  many  of  us  un- 
derstood but  little,  yet  we  that  were  present 
that  day  saw  and  heard  them  perform  the 
duties  mentioned  with  such  grave  and  sober 
countenances,    with    such    comely    reverence   in 


JOHN    ELIOT.  G9 

their  gesture  and  their  whole  carriage,  and 
with  such  plenty  of  tears  trickling  down  the 
cheeks  of  some  of  them,  as  did  argue  to  us 
that  they  spake  with  the  holy  fear  of  God,  and 
it  much  affected  our  hearts." ' 

Eliot  used  great  caution  —  a  caution  probably 
beyond  what  was  called  for  —  before  organizing 
converts  into  a  church.  Six  or  eight  years  at 
least  he  had  a  class  of  catechumens  who  gave 
gratifying  evidence  of  a  change  of  heart,  but  it 
was  not  till  1660  that  the  first  Indian  church 
was  constituted.  Could  there  be  a  greater  con- 
trast than  between  such  thorough  proceedings 
and  the  superficial  evangelization  and  hasty 
baptisms  of  the  Dutch  in  their  seventeenth 
century  operations  among  natives  of  the  great 
Asiatic  archipelago  ? 

In  order  to  form  some  suitable  estimate  of 
the  results  of  Eliot's  missionary  labor  it  will 
be  helpful  if  we  take  our  station  for  a  moment 
at  the  date  of  1670,  a  little  more  than  midway 
in  his  apostleship,  when  he  has  been  thus  en- 
gaged for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  The  colonial 
settlements  have  as  yet  made  no  ver}"  great  ad- 
vance. In  all  New  England  only  about  fort}'" 
churches  can  be  found.  No  town  except  Boston 
has  more  than  one  church.  The  first  printing 
press  is  just  being  introduced  into  that  place, 
and   it   will    be    fifty    years    before    one   sees   a 


'  Mather's  Mogilalia,  Vol.  I,  p.  513. 


70  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

market  cart  with  vegetables  driving  into  town.  ' 
It  is  not  easy  to  conceive  how  rudely  primitive 
was  the  condition  of  this  capital  of  New  Eng- 
land, now  embracing  a  population  of  about  four 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand.  Writers,  more 
especially  European  writers,  seem  to  have  no 
proper  idea  of  the  state  of  things  at  the  be- 
ginning of  tliat  settlement.  Miss  Charlotte  M. 
Yonge,  for  example,  a  well-known  English  author, 
in  her  sketch  of  Eliot,  says,  "They 

esu  s  o       landed   at  Boston,  then    newly    ris- 
Labor.  .  .  . 

ing   into   a   city   over   its  harbor."' 

Boston  was  not  incorporated  as  a  city  till 
nearly  two  centuries  after  that  (1822).  Wolves 
infested  its  neighborhood  on  the  south.^  The 
first  meeting  house  in  Roxbury  was  a  mere 
thatched  building ;  yet  at  the  date  which  has 
been  named  (1670)  there  are  one  thousand  and 
one  hundred  nominally  Christian  natives  under 
the  care  of  Eliot.  In  the  church  at  Natick 
will  be  found  between  forty  and  fifty  commu- 
nicants. Within  the  limits  of  the  two  col- 
onies, Massachusetts  and  Plymouth,  six  native 
churches  have  come  into  existence.  There  are 
seven  old  towns  of  "praying  Indians,"  and 
more  remotely  in  the  Nipmuck  country  seven 
new  "  praying  towns ; "  while  the  proportion 
(/of  natives  who   can  read   and  write  equals  that 

'  Pioneers  and  Founders,  p.  4. 
''Note  11. 


A  "tv^*-'^^ 


JOHN    ELIOT.  71 


"'  /'of  the  Russian  Empire  today.  Several  Indians 
/  had  joined  the  church  in  Roxbury.  The  Indian 
churches  were  all  well  furnished  with  religious 
officers  except  the  one  at  Natick,  where,  as 
Eliot  reports,  "In  modesty  they  stood  off,  be- 
cause so  long  as  I  live  they  sa}^  there  is  no 
need."  ■  No  missionary  to  North  American  In- 
dians was  ever  more  successful  than  he.  The 
^r  venerable  man  lived  to  see  twenty-four  native 
Ij^.  preachers  raised  up,  some  of  them  through  his 
own  instrumentalit}-.  He  had  the  sagacity  to 
observe  —  what  some  modern  missionaries  seem 
slow  to  apprehend  —  "that  God  is  wont  ordina- 
rily to  convert  nations  and  peoples  by  some  of 
their  own  countrymen,  who  are  nearest  to  them 
and  can  best  speak  and  most  of  all  pity  their 
brethren  and  countrymen."  How  stands  the 
case  now,  after  the  lapse  of  two  hundred  j-ears? 
Our  general  government  has  come  into  rela- 
tions with  scores,  indeed  hundreds,  of  tribes, 
and  missionary  societies  have  sent  numerous 
laborers  among  them.  Yet  at  this  moment, 
on  all  of  their  extensive  reservations,  are  there 
more  ordained  native  men  than  Eliot  could 
name  two  hundred  years  ago  in  Massachusetts 
alone?  One  sentence  of  his  I  commend  to 
you  as  a  pocket-piece  —  as  a  stimulating  senti- 
ment for  all  days  before  you.     It  occurs  at  the 


■  Letter  to  Increase  Mather,  August  22,  1673. 


72  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

close  of  his  Indian  grammar,'  "  Prayer  and 
pains,  through  faith  in  Christ  Jesus,  will  do 
anything." 

Eliot   was    not,   as   before   remarked,    cheered 
by   universal   approbation,  nor   did   he    seek  pe- 
cuniary  returns    to   himself.      His    stipend   was 
much   the   same    as    that   of    the    Apostle    Paul 
—  obloquy     and     hardships.^    .From     his     own 
countrymen    he    sometimes     encountered    suspi- 
cion,   censure,    and   varied    unkind- 
Personal  o  U1  J     1  •         r 
^  .  ,           ness.      oome    blamed    him    tor    re- 
Tnals. 

ducing  the  trade  in  peltries  by 
encouragement  given  to  settled  life  and  to 
agriculture  instead  of  the  chase.  There  were 
those  in  Old  England  as  well  as  New  England 
who  impeached  his  motives  and  pronounced 
his  work  a  failure,  just  as  is  now  done  by 
men  skeptical  regarding  evangelistic  operations 
among  the  heathen.  But  he  endured  hardness 
as  a  good  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ.  Listen  to 
one  of  his  memorandums :  "  It  pleased  God  to 
exercise    us    with    such    tedious    rain    and    bad 


■  The  Indian  Grammar  Begun ;  or,  An  Essay  to  Bring  the  Indian 
Language  into  Rules.     Cambridge,  1666. 

'  A  letter  written  by  Eliot  in  1673  answered  inquiries,  one  of 
which  ran  thus :  "What  encouragement  is  there  as  to  outward 
matters  for  any  of  the  natives  of  England  or  Scotland  to  under- 
take the  work  of  the  ministry  among  them  by  devoting  himself 
wholly  or  mainly  thereunto  ?  "  Answer :  "  Nothing  but  poverty 
and  hardships  unsupportable  in  a  constant  way  by  our  clothed 
and  housed  nations." 


JOHN    ELIOT.  73 

weather  that  we  were  extreme  wet,  insomuch 
that  I  was  not  dry  from  the  third  day  of  the 
week  to  the  sixth,  but  so  traveled,  and  at  night 
pull  off  my  boots,  wring  my  stockings,  and  on 
with  them  again." 

Nor  was  he  wholly  exempt  from  danger 
among  the  Indians,  especially  when  there  were 
feuds  between  different  tribes.  In  some  in- 
stances the  sachems  and  powwows,  apprehensive 
lest  their  authority  should  be  undermined  by 
the  new  religion,  would  threaten  him  if  he  did 
not  desist  from  his  operations.  But  he  replied: 
"I  am  about  the  work  of  the  great  God,  and 
my  God  is  with  me,  so  that  I  neither  fear  you 
nor  all  the  sachems  in  the  country.  I  will 
go  on.  Do  you  touch  me  if  you  dare ! "  His 
record  might  well  be:  "In  journeyings  oft;  in 
perils  of  water ;  in  perils  by  the  heathen ; 
in  perils  in  the  wilderness;"  but  exempt  from 
one  form  of  perils  that  Paul  met  with  —  those 
of  the  city,  for  there  was  no  city  on  the  con- 
tinent nearer  than  St.  Augustine  in  Florida. 

The  severest  trial,  however,  was  the  reverses 
and  partial  deterioration  experienced  at  the 
native  settlements  and  by  other  Indians  for 
whom  he  had  labored.  In  spite  of  prohibitory 
laws,  ardent  spirits  were  sold  to  them  by  the 
whites;  and  intemperance  proved,  as  it  has 
ever  since  and  everywhere  proved  among  the 
aborigines,    exceedingly    demoralizing    and    de- 


74  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

structive.  Eliot's  chief  disappointment  resulted 
from  the  war  with  Philip,  the  powerful  Nar- 
raganset  sachem.  The  towns  of  "  praying 
Indians "  were,  to  a  great  extent,  broken  up, 
for  they  fell  under  the  suspicion  of  English 
settlers.  Such  alarm  and  exasperation  reigned 
among  the  exposed  colonists  that  our  apostle 
could  only  with  much  difficulty  secure  a  hear- 
ing for  the  claims  of  humanity  and  Christian 
brotherhood.  The  strong  native 
instincts  and  tribal  s^^mpathies  of 
a  few  among  those  who  had  enjoyed  the  ben- 
efits of  colonial  philanthropy  led  them  to  join 
their  savage  countrymen  in  marauding  expedi- 
tions.' Christian  Indians,  especially  within  the 
Massachusetts  Colony,  lost  alike  the  confidence 
of  their  uncivilized  fellows  and  of  their  white: 
neighbors.  Some  of  the  settlements,  however, 
remained  without  exception  friendly  and  loyal 
to  their  benefactors  throughout  those  contests.  ' 
It  was  not  at  all  strange  —  though  at  this 
distance  sad,  indeed,  to  contemplate  —  that  ter- 
ror should  overpower  all  better  feelings  on  the 
part  of  English  settlers  and  lead  to  unchristian 
retaliation.      One    company  of  Indians,  semi-civ- 


'  Among  those  who  refused  to  join  the  Pequots  when  they 
sought  to  enlist  him  against  the  English  was  John  Thomas, 
who  was  one  of  the  earliest  of  the  "praying  Indians"  and  who 
joined  the  church  when  it  was  first  gathered  by  Eliot.  He  died 
at  Natick,  1727,  aged  110  years. 


JOHN    ELIOT.  75 

ilized  at  least,  was  conducted  to  an  island  in 
Boston  Harbor,  bound  together  somewhat  as 
Mohammedan  slave-drivers  now  treat  their  cap- 
tives in  Africa.  Some,  captured  in  war,  were 
sold  into  West  Indian  slavery  —  a  monstrous 
proceeding,  yet  it  was  only  in  accord  with  the 
sentiment  and  usage  of  the  mother  country. 
)At  that  very  period  men  were  transported 
from  England  to  Barbadoes,  and  women  to 
Jamaica,  and  sold  there  as  slaves  to  the  col- 
jonists  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time.'  Two 
hundred  and  fifty  of  the  Covenanters  cap- 
tured at  Bothwell  Bridge  were  shipped  as 
[slaves   to   Barbadoes.^ 

,  Provocation  was  extreme.  Indians  once 
started  upon  the  warpath,  their  ravages  were 
widespread  and  merciless.  No  apology  what- 
ever can  be  offered  for  them.  Lands  occupied 
by  the  early  settlers  were  bought  and  on  terms 
satisfactory  to  aboriginal  claimants.  Legislation 
in  their  behalf  had  been  eminently  humane  and 
wise.  Wrongs,  so  far  as  committed  by  white 
neighbors,  were  the  work  of  such  unthinking 
or  unprincipled  men  as  are  never  wanting  in 
any  community,  young  or  old.  The  wild  In- 
dians,  distinguished   from    those   reclaimed,   did 


'  Dictionary  of  Sects,  etc.  By  the  Rer.  John  Henry  Blunt, 
M.A.,  F.S.A.     London,  1874.    P.  465. 

^  Scotland's  Free  Church.  By  George  Buchanan  Riley  and 
John  M.  McCandlish,  F.R.S.E.     London,  1893.    P.  175. 


76  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

not  appreciate  the  kindness  generally  felt  and 
the  justice  shown  them,  nor  did  they  appreci- 
ate the  benefits  of  civilized  life.  Race  hatred 
and  race  fear  dominated  the  reckless  sav- 
ages. There  was  no  peace  and  no  safety 
for  the  newcomers,  especially  in  outlying  dis- 
tricts. The  farmer  and  the  traveler  were  liable 
at  any  hour  of  the  day  to  be  shot  by  an 
enemy  in  ambush.  Women  and  children  at 
the  door  might  be  scalped  or  hurried  into  cap- 
tivity. In  the  two  older  and  principal  colonies 
there  were  less  than  ninety  towns ;  of  these, 
at  least  ten  were  entirely  destroyed  and  forty 
more  were  injured  by  fire.  About  two  thirds 
of  them  had  personal  experience  of  the  terrors 
incident  to  a  frontier  inadequately  protected, 
and  harassed  by  stealthy,  unscrupulous  ene- 
mies who  were  bent  on  exterminating  all  white 
settlements.  Men  of  military  age  were  literally 
decimated  by  murder  or  in  battle,  or  as  pris- 
oners undergoing  tortures  the  very  thought  of 
which,  even  at  this  distance  of  time,  makes 
us  shudder.  Only  a  few  English  families  in 
the  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth  Colonies  were 
not  in  mourning.'  Whatever  may  be  true  of 
later  treatment  of  Indian  tribes  within  our 
national  limits,  and.  whatever  the  responsibility 
of    white    encroachment    for    Indian    hostilities, 


'  Palfrey's  History  of  New  England,  III,  p.  215. 


JOHN    ELIOT.  77 

neither  equity  nor  sentiment  can  reasonably 
apologize  for  these  earlier  onsets  of  hostile 
natives.  Our  fathers  aimed  at  self-preserva- 
tion; they  had  a  right  to  do  all  that  self-pres- 
ervation required,  and  as  war  goes  they  were 
justified  in  their  proceedings.  The  after  dis- 
tribution of  captives  into  slavery  is,  indeed, 
to  be  most  emphatically  reprehended.  Against 
that  proceeding  our  apostle  issued  a  public  pro- 
test.' He  declares,  "  Christ  has  said,  '  Blessed 
are  the  merciful,  for  they  shall  obtain  mercy. 
In  the  course  of  the  same  extended  petition 
occurs  the  following :  "  When  we  came  we  de- 
clared to  the  world,  and  it  is  recorded — yea 
we  are  instructed  by  our  letters  patent  from 
the  king's  majesty  —  that  the  endeavor  of  the 
Indians'  conversion,  not  their  extirpation,  was 
one  great  end  of  our  enterprise  in  coming  to 
these  ends  of  the  earth."  John  Robinson's  oft- 
quoted  exclamation,  "  O,  that  you  had  converted 
some  before  you  had  killed  any !  "  was  uncalled 
for.  Dr.  Warneck,  candid  and  usually  accu- 
rate, writes,  "  Although  these  emigrants  ex- 
pressly proposed  to  themselves  the  extension 
of  the  kingdom  of  God  among  the  heathen, 
yet   Indian   wars   preceded   by   a   long  time   In- 


* "  To  the  Honorable  the  Governor  and  Council,  sitting  at 
Boston  the  loth  of  the  sixth,  1675i  the  humble  petition  of 
John  Eliot  sboweth." 


78  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

dian  missions." '  Just  the  reverse  of  that  is 
true.  He  was  misled  by  Fritschel,^  who  at 
times   is   neither   candid    nor   accurate. 

From  the  disasters  of  that  period  the  settle- 
ments of  Christian  Indians  never  recovered. . 
Removal  and  decay  went  on  till  now  for  a 
long  time  neither  cabin  nor  wigwam  has  been 
seen  anywhere  on  the  field  of  Eliot's  chief 
missionary   toil.      Visiting   the   village  of  South 

Natick,  you   will   find   one   humble 
13cc£i(lciicc* 

gravestone  bearing  the  name  of 
Tackawompbait,3  a  teacher,  at  whose  ordina- 
tion our  Eliot  assisted  and  whose  interment 
took  place  in  1716.  The  rude  block  has  been 
built  into  a  wall  that  runs  across  his  grave 
by  the  public  roadside.  Its  position  and  treat- 
ment are  an  emblem  of  the  race,  prostrate  or 
vanished. 

But  "  what  then,"  inquires  Dr.  Geekie,* 
"what  then  remains  of  all  this  marvelous  toil 
and  industry?"  We  answer,  what  Augustine 
was  to  the  Angles  of  Britain,  John  Eliot,  a 
man  far  superior  to  him,  became  to  Indians  in 
New    England.      Rightly    viewed    he    was    one 


'  Outline  of  the  History  of  Protestant  Missions.     Smith's  trans- 
lation.    P.  35. 

2  Gesckichte    der    christlichen     Missionen     unter    den    Indianern 
Nordamerikas. 

3  Note  12. 

*  Christian  Missions  to   Wrong  Places,  among  Wrong  Races,  in 
Wrong  Hands.    By  A.  C.  Geekie,  D.D.     London,  1871.    P.  5. 


JOHN    ELIOT.  79 

of  the  few  men  of  an  age  or  of  a  country. 
Thougli  acceptable  as  a  preacher  and  pastor 
among  his  countrymen,  he  chose  to  forego,  in 
large  measure,  the  gratifications  of  popularity, 
to  surrender  the  comparative  comforts  of  ex- 
clusive home  work,  and  for  more  than  twoscore 
years  to  spend  many  a  day  —  yes,  and  occasion- 
ally a  night  too '  —  in  toilsome  efforts  to  win 
those  men  of  the  forest  to  Christ  and  to  civil- 
ization. Not  a  whit  was  this  apostle  to  the 
Indians  behind  the  chiefest  of  modern  apostles. 
From  Roxbury  round  about  unto  Illyricum  he 
fully  preached  the  gospel,  and 
scores  oi  dark-minded  warriors  be- 
came divinely  enlightened.  In  the  habitation 
of  dragons  where  each  lay  there  came  to  be 
grass,  with  reeds  and  rushes.  The  wilderness 
and  solitary  place  were  glad  for  him ;  the 
desert   rejoiced   and   blossomed   as    the   rose. 

Cheerfulness,  temperance,  early  rising,  and 
hard  work  —  for  each  of  which  Eliot  was  noted 
—  favor  longevity.  At  the  age  of  eighty-six 
years,  on  the  20th  of  May,  1690,  Eliot  entered 
into  rest,  the  last  words  which  he  uttered 
being,  "Welcome  joy!"^  Twenty  years  before 
that  Baxter  wrote  him:  "There  is  no  man  on 
earth  whose  work  I  think  more  honorable  and 
comfortable   than   j^ours.      The   industry   of  the 


'  Note  13. 
"  Note  14. 


80  PROTESTANT    MISSIONS. 

Jesuits  and  friars  and  their  successes  in  Congo, 
Japan,  China,  etc.,  shame  us  all  save  you." 
After  Eliot's  decease  Baxter,  on  his  own  death- 
bed, writes :  "  There  was  no  man  on  earth 
whom  I  honored  above  him.  I  am  now  dying 
—  I  hope  as  lie  did."  The  celebrated  John 
Owen  expressed  much  interest  in  the  labors 
and    cliaracter   of  Eliot. 

"All  this  vast  labor,"  remarks  Dr.  Geekie 
once  more,  "has  proved  a  work  for  one  day, 
not  for  all  time."  Is  it  only  of  transient 
moment  that  hundreds  of  human  beings,  ig- 
norant, debased,  yet  bearing  the  stamp  of 
immortalit}',  have  the  good  news  of  salva- 
tion brought  to  them,  receive  the  truth  in 
faith  and  love,  and  become  heirs  to  an  in- 
heritance incorruptible,  undefiled,  all  glorious, 
and  endless?  And,  further,  was 
esu  s       ^j^g     influence     of     Eliot    and     his 

Perpetuated. 

coadjutors  circumscribed  geograph- 
ically and  to  that  age  ?  A  refluent  wave  of 
missionary  interest  reached  the  mother  country. 
His  own  writings  and  the  writings  of  others 
made  known  there  the  nature  and  prospects 
of  his  work.  English  and  Scottish  societies 
for  propagating  the  gospel  in  foreign  parts 
sprang  up,  partly  at  least,  as  a  result.  By 
blessed  contagion  that  interest  spread,  and  in 
some  measure  Avas  perpetuated.  Good  men 
in    Holland,    too,    were     moved     by     the    good 


JOHN"   ELIOT.  81 

news.  Increase  Mather,  writing  (1687)  to 
Leusden,  professor  of  Hebrew  in  the  University 
of  Utrecht,  states  that  Eliot,  though  eighty- 
three  years  old,  still  preached  to  the  Indians 
as  often  as  once  in  two  months.  The  note- 
worthy rise  of  foreign  missionary  zeal  within 
the  last  hundred  years  is  an  outgrowth,  in  no 
small  measure,  of  what  was  done  for  the  pagan 
people  of  Massachusetts  by  Eliot  and  his  co- 
laborers  and  immediate  successors.  The  Amer- 
ican Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Mis- 
sions, which  has  sent  out  more  than  two  thou- 
sand missionaries,  is  a  century  plant,  whose 
seed  was  dropped  by  the  apostle  to  the  Indians 
among  the  hills  of  Natick.  One  reason  why 
God  so  blessed  our  fathers  was  that  they,  the 
hostages  of  Providence,  were  true  to  Christ's 
commission  and  were  teachers  and  leaders  of 
a  militant  host  in  modern  Protestant  missions. 
The  church  that  is  not  missionary  in  its  spirit 
must  repent  or  wane ;  the  pastor  who  is  not 
should  reform  or  resign. 


V 

AMONG  INDIANS 


The  last  chapter  was  on  John  Eliot,  the 
most  eminent  missionary  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  No  further  sketch  of  evangelistic 
labor  in  behalf  of  aborigines  during  the  sev- 
enteenth century  can  be  expected  to  have 
equal  interest.  It  would  not,  however,  be 
just  to  his  contemporaries  and  successors,  nor 
just  to  that  period  nor  to  the  century  fol- 
lowing, if  we  pass  by  certain  other  of  the 
earlier  endeavors  to  Christianize  Indian  tribes. 
But  it  miofht  seem  wearisome  to  listen  to  de- 
tails  in  this  department  which  are  not  intrin- 
sically of  high  importance,  and  the  interest 
in  which  is  due  largely  to  local  associations. 
I  propose,  therefore,  at  this  time  not  so  much 
a  lecture  as  a  glance  at  some  of  the  salient 
facts,  indeed  simply  notes,  which  can  easily 
be  expanded  at  your  option.  Following  a 
geographical  order  we  will  only  outline  the 
subject. 


Among  Indians.  8S 

No  family  in  colonial  times  or  subsequently 
in  the  United  States  has  such  a  noteworthy 
record  in  the  line  of  missionary  labor  as  that 
of  the  Mayhews  on  Martha's  Vineyard.  That 
island,  called  by  the  natives  Nope^  twenty 
miles  in  length  and  three  to  nine  miles  in 
width,  together  with  neighboring  islands  —  Nan- 
tucket and  the  sixteen  Elizabeth  Islands  — 
was  secured  from  the  agent  of 
Lord   Sterling    by   Thomas  May-     ..         . 

o        J  J         Massachusetts, 

hew,  who    had   been   a  merchant 

in  Southampton,  England,  and  who  came  to 
New  England  before  1636.  This  grant  was 
made  in  1641.  Those  islands  were  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  New  York  till  1692,  when  they 
were  annexed  to  Massachusetts.. 

In  1642  Mayhew  began  a  settlement  at 
Edgartown,  towards  eighty  miles  southeast 
from  Boston,  and  he  became  governor  of  the 
domain  which  had  been  ceded  to  him.  He 
strongly  attached  the  Indians  to  himself. 
After  the  death  of  his  son  Thomas  —  it  be- 
ing impossible  to  obtain  a  stated  minister  for 
the  Indians  —  he  began  himself,  having  ac- 
quired their  language,  to  preach  to  them 
and  to  the  English,  his  age  being  three- 
score and  ten.  It  was  a  noteworthy  sight  to 
see  a  governor,  and  especially  at  such  an 
age,  walking  sometimes  nearly  twenty  miles 
through   the    woods    to   preach. 


84  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

He  induced  the  Gay  Head  Indians  at  the 
farther  end  of  Martha's  Vineyard  to  receive 
the  gospel.  Gay  Head  is  a  remarkable  prom- 
ontory rising  over  a  hundred  and  seventy  feet 
above  the  sea  at  the  southwest  extremity  of 
the  island.  In  1675,  during  King  Philip's  War, 
the  Indians  in  that  region,  being  twenty  times 
more  numerous  than  the  English,  would,  in  all 
probability,  have  exterminated  their  neighbors 
but  for  the  influence  of  Governor  Mayhew  and 
of  the  gospel  which  they  had  been  taught. 
Early  New  England  history  furnishes  no  otjier 
instance  of  such  prolonged  happy  relations  be- 
tween colonists  and  aborigines. 

In  1670,  though  fully  fourscore  years  of  age, 
he  was  asked  to  become  pastor  of  the  first 
native  church,  but  declined  the  invitation.  He 
lived  to  be  ninety-two,  laboring  to  the  very 
last,  and  dying  in  1681. 

Thomas   Mayhew,  the    only   son   of   Governor 

Thomas,    was    the    first    minister    on    Martlia's 

Vineyard.      Accompanying   his   father,   in    1642, 

he   began   labor  there  by  preach- 

Five  Mayhews.      .  ,        ,,         n  t^       t   i         i 

mg  to  the  lew  English  who  es- 
tablished a  settlement ;  but  he  became  inter- 
ested in  the  surrounding  natives,  studied  their 
language,  and  won  their  confidence.  He  might 
be  seen  in  their  smoky  wigwams  devoting  a 
part  of  the  night  to  rehearsing  Scripture  truths 
to    them.     Such  was    the  attachment  of   the   na- 


AMONG   INDIANS.  85 

tives  to  him  that  the  mention  of  his  name 
would  for  years  afterwards  call  forth  tears. 
When  he  left  them  to  embark  for  England 
the  place  on  the  wayside  where  he  took 
leave  was  for  that  generation  remembered  with 
sorrow.  According  to  Indian  usage  a  pile  of 
stones  marked  the  spot,  which  is  still  pointed 
out.  Thus  the  scene  at  Miletus  was  reen- 
acted  there. 

In  1643  Hiacoomes  was  recognized  as  the 
first  convert.  Mr.  Mayhew  began  his  public 
and  volunteer  work  among  the  Indians  three 
years  later  (1646),  the  same  year  that  Eliot 
started  out  on  his  first  formal  preaching  tour. 
He  took  up  residence  at  Edgartown  as  pas- 
tor of  the  English  settlement  there,  and  also 
began  efforts  in  behalf  of  neighboring  Indians. 
Four  years  had  hardly  gone  by  when  (1650) 
one  hundred  of  those  red  men  entered  into 
a  covenant  that  they  would  obey  God,  im- 
ploring mercy  through  Christ  Jesus.  In  the 
course  of  his  twelve  years  of  earnest  labor 
"  many  hundred  men  and  women  were  added 
to  the  church,"  says  Cotton  Mather.  Chiefly 
with  a  view  to  secure  aid  for  them  he  sailed 
for  England  (November,  1657)  ;  but  the  vessel 
and  all  on  board  were  lost  at  sea.  With 
him  perished  one  of  his  native  preachers,  who 
had  graduated  from  Harvard  College.  Thomas 
Mayhew,    a    man    of    much    promise  —  a    man 


86  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

who,  indeed,  had  largely  fulfilled  his  prom- 
ise—  was  removed  at  the  age  of  thirty-six.' 
As  before  intimated  the  aged  father  took  up 
the  work  of  the  son  after  his  removal,  and 
continued  the  same  during  the  remainder  of 
a   life   unusually  prolonged. 

John  Mayhew,  a  son  of  Thomas  junior,  was 
born  1652,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty-one  be- 
came minister  to  the  English  colonists  at  Tis- 
bury,  which  adjoins  Edgartown  on  Martha's 
Vineyard.  About  the  same  time  he  began  to 
preach  to  the  Indians.  He  taught  alternately 
in  their  assemblies  every  week,  receiving  only 
five  pounds  per  annum,  till  two  years  before 
his  death,  which  occurred  1689,  at  the  same 
age  with  his  father,  who  at  thirty-six  slept  be- 
neath the  sea. 

Experience  Mayhew,  son  of  John  and  great- 
grandson  of  the  first  governor,  was  born  Jan- 
uary 27,  1673.  He  spoke  Indian  from  early 
childhood,  and  began  at  the  same  age  as  his 
father,  twenty-one,  to  preach  to  the  red  men, 
and  had  the  oversight  of  half  a  dozen  assem- 
blies. He  was  employed  by  the  Societ}'-  for 
Propagating  the  Gospel  in  New  England,  and 
prepared  a  new  version   of  the  Psalms   as   well 


'The  Rev.  Thomas  Mayhew  married  his  stepsister,  the 
daughter  of  Mrs.  Paine,  a  widow  lady  who  became  the  second 
wife  of  tlie  governor. 


AMONG  INDIANS.  87 

as  of  the  Gospel  of  John  (1709).  In  1727 
appeared  his  valuable  book,  entitled  Indian 
Converts.  Other  writings  were  also  published. 
His  death  took  place  November  29,  1758,  at 
the  age  of  eighty-five.' 

Zechariah  Mayhew,  son  of  Experience,  re- 
ceived ordination  at  Martha's  Vineyard  De- 
cember 10,  1767.  In  the  employ  of  the  fore- 
named  society  he  devoted  his  life  to  the 
Indians,  and  died  March  6,  1806,  aged  eighty- 
nine.* 

Thus  for  five  generations  members  of  this 
family  labored  in  behalf  of  the  Indians  (from 
1646  to  1806),  a  period  of  one  hundred  and 
sixty  years.  The  only  parallel  instance  in 
missionary  annals  is  that  of  the  Moravian, 
Frederick  Bonisch  —  who  married  Anna  Stach, 
1740  —  and  his  descendants,  who  also  during 
five  generations  continued  in  the  good  work 
for  one  hundred  and  forty  years.  The  last 
one  in  that  line  died  a  few  years  since.  One 
other  Moravian  family,  by  the  name  of  Bach, 
performed  missionary  service  in  Greenland  dur- 
ing one  hundred  and  ten  consecutive  years. 

Others  of  the  Mayhew  family,  besides  the 
five  who  have  been  named,  manifested  an  in- 
terest  in    the   religious    welfare    of   the   aborig- 


'  Note  15. 

2  Regarding  his  age  authorities  differ. 


88  PROTESTANT    MISSIONS. 

ines.  One  of  them  was  Matthew,  a  son  of 
Thomas  junior,  who,  in  1681,  succeeded  his 
grandfather  as  governor  and  who  also  preached 
to  the  Indians. 

Longevity  among  the  Maj'^hews  will  be  no- 
ticed. Thomas,  who  heads  the  list,  governor 
and  patentee,  attained  to  ninety-two ;  Expe- 
rience, his  great-grandson,  to  eighty-five ;  and 
Zechariah,  a  son  of  Experience,  to  eighty-nine. 
The  sixty-four  years  of  Experience  Mayhew's 
missionary  service  exceeds  even  the  Moravian 
Zeisberger's  term,  which  was  sixty-two  years, 
and  exceeds  that  of  any  other  American  en- 
gaged in  similar  work.' 

Evangelistic  success  among  the  Indians  of 
Martha's  Vineyard  was,  on  the  whole,  not 
less  than  anywhere  else  in  the  country. 
Whatever  the  cause,  insular  missions  have 
generally  been  more  successful  than  those 
upon  the  continents.  This  was  begun  a 
little  earlier  (1644  or  1645)  than  Eliot's  work 
at  Nonantum  (1646),  and  after  five  or  six 
years  nearly  two  hundred  men,  women,  and 
children  professed  the  Christian  religion^  and 
attended  upon  the  religious  instruction  of 
Thomas   Mayhew. 


'  The  statement  regarding  Zeisberger,  on  page  305  of  Mora- 
vian Missions,  needs  correction. 
'  Note  16. 


AMONG   INDIANS.  89 

A  dozen  years  later  (1662)  there  were  two 
hundred  and  eighty-two,  including  eight  pow- 
wows, who  had  embraced  Christianity.  At 
the  death  of  John  Mayhew  (1689)  there  was 
a  church  of  one  hundred  members, 
containing  several  well-instructed 
native  teachers.  In  process  of  time  the  en- 
tire island  became  Christian,  nominally  at 
least,  and  adopted  the  usages  of  civilized 
life  in  the  matter  of  husbandry  and  other 
concerns.  The  first  of  their  churches  was 
constituted  in  1670  (August  22),  John  Eliot 
being  present  to  assist.  Thence  onward  order 
and  discipline  were  fairly  well  maintained.' 
The  original  population  continued  to  dimin- 
ish.^ In  1720  there  were  but  eight  hundred 
souls,  distributed  in  six  small  villages,  each  of 
which   was    supplied    with   an    Indian  preacher.^ 

The  name  of  the  first  convert,  Hiacoomes, 
has  been  mentioned.  After  receiving  instruc- 
tion from  Mr.  Mayhew  he  began  to  instruct 
his  neighbors,  somewhat  privately  and  quietly, 
till  at  length  Tawanquatuck,  a  prominent  sa- 
chem,  invited   Mr.  Mayhew   and   Hiacoomes   to 


'Note  17. 

*  Cotton  Mather  estimates  the  number  of  adults  on  Martha's 
Vineyard  and  Nantucket  at  about  three  tliousand,  wliich,  like 
most  of  the  early  estimates  of  the  original  population  of  the 
country,  was  probably  in  excess  of  facts. 

3  Coll.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  I,  206. 


90  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

preach  to  him  and  as  many  others  as  would 
attend.  From  that  time  this  earliest  of  such 
converts  in  New  England  was  recognized  as 
a  public  religious  teacher.  He  became  the  first 
native  pastor  of  a  church,  and  was  for  a 
time  an  object  of  hatred  to  the  powwows, 
who  threatened  his  life ;  but  he  exhibited  a 
true  courage,  resulting  from  faith  in  God.  A 
haughty  sagamore,  Pahkehpunuasso  by  name,  re- 
viled him  for  conforming  to  the  English  in 
things  civil  and  religious.  Hiacoomes  replied 
that  this  was  not  to  the  disadvantage  of  the 
Indians,  whereupon  the  sagamore  dealt  him  a 
heavy  blow  in  the  face.  The  Christian  man 
meekly  replied,  "  I  have  one  hand  for  injuries 
and  another  hand  for  God ;  while  I  receive 
wrong  with  the  one  I  lay  the  faster  hold 
on  God  with  the  other."  Hiacoomes  lived  to 
a  great  age.  The  life  of  Tawanquatuck  was 
also  threatened  on  account  of  his  renouncing 
heathenism. 

The  Mayhews,  especially  in  the  earlier  pe- 
riod of  their  missionary  work,  appear  to  have 
been  not  less  cautious  than  John  Eliot  in 
their  estimates  of  Christian  character.  A  long 
time  elapsed  before  a  separate  Indian  church 
was  organized.  Not  only  did  Hiacoomes,  the 
first  pastor,  maintain  a  consistent  Christian  and 
official  walk,  but  other  preachers  also.  Expe- 
rience   Mayhew    in    his    work    entitled    Indian 


AMONG   INDIANS.  91 

Converts^  a  handsome  volume  of  three  hun- 
dred pages,  printed  in  London,  1727,  enumer- 
ates twenty-two  "godly  Indian  ministers,"  whom 
he  portrays.  Then  follow  sketches  of  "twenty 
other  good  Indian  men,"  "thirty  religious  In- 
dian women,"  and  "twenty-two  pious  Indian 
young  persons."  These  ninety-four  narratives 
are  followed  by  supplementary  briefer  notices 
of  seventeen  other  Indian  men  and  nine  other 
Indian  women.  The  sixscore  converts  thus 
singled  out  for  particular  mention  are  only 
such  as  seemed  to  be  specially  worthy  of  a 
published  narrative.  Mayhew  was  scrupulously 
accurate,  and  his  reliability  is  attested  by 
eleven   ministers   of  Boston.' 

Other  ministers  of  the  gospel  took  part  in 
this  work  among  the  red  men.  The  Rev.  John 
Cotton,  known  chiefly  as  a  preacher  at  Plym- 
outh, labored  at  one  time  for  about  two  years 
on  behalf  of  the  English  at 
Martha's  Vineyard,  and,  being  Colaborers  and 
acquainted  with  the  language  of 
the  Indians,  gave  attention  to  them.  That 
was  during  the  life  of  the  first  Governor 
Mayhew  (1665-1667).  Rev.  Josiah  Torrey, 
pastor  of  the  English  Church  at  Tisbury,  a 
contemporary  of  Experience  Mayhew,  cooper- 
ated   with    him.      Having    mastered    their   lan- 

'  Note  18, 


92  PKOTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

gviage,  he  preached  or  lectured  to  the  In- 
dians  for   many   years. 

The  Rev.  Samuel  Wiswall,  pastor  of  the 
church  in  Edgartown,  studied  the  language 
of  the  Indians  with  a  view  to  making  him- 
self useful   among   them. 

The  evangelistic  efforts  of  English  preach- 
ers and  their  converts  were  not  confined  to 
Martha's  Vineyard.  Cotton  Mather  testifies : 
"As  in  the  apostolic  times  the  church  sent 
forth  from  among  themselves  for  the  conver- 
sion of  the  nations,  so  these  Indians  on 
Martha's  Vineyard  did,  not  only  to  the  isl- 
and of  Nantucket,  being  about  one  thousand 
five  hundred  adult  persons,  but  likewise  to 
the   mainland." ' 

On  Nantucket  in  1694  there  were  three 
churches,  one  of  them  Baptist,  and  not  a 
powwow   remained. 

At  the  present  time  the  Gay  Head  tribe 
on  Martha's  Vineyard,  which  numbers  some- 
thing over  one  hundred  and  fifty,  can  hardly 
be  called  Indians,  as  there  is  not  one  of  un- 
mixed blood  among  them.  They  are  incorpo- 
rated as  a  town,  and  manage  their  own  affairs 
as  do  people  elsewhere.  They  have  one  school 
and  a  small  Baptist  church. 

Leaving   Martha's   Vineyard    we    cross   Vine- 


^  Magnolia,  B.  VI,  Sec.  2, 


AMONG   INDIANS.  93 

yard  Sound,  five  miles  in  width,  to  Cape  Cod 
and  enter  Barnstable  Count}^,  the  most  eastern 
county  in  Massachusetts.  Here  we  come  to  an 
Indian  settlement,  about  sixty  miles  southeast 
from  Boston,  called  Marshpee.'  Rev.  Joseph 
Bourne  was  ordained  here  in  1729,  but  re- 
signed in  1748.  His  predecessor  was  Simon 
Patmonet  and  his  successor  Solomon  Bryant. 
In  1693  Marshpee  Indians,  to  the  number 
of  two  hundred  and  fourteen,  were  under  the 
care  of  Rev.  Rowland  Cotton,  the  first  minis- 
ter of  Sandwich.  The  Rev.  Gideon  Hawley, 
who  had  labored  among  the  Indians  in  New 
York  and  at  Stockbridge,  was  in- 
stalled as  pastor  at  Marshpee,  1758,     ^^"""st^bi^ 

A  •       A    ^^  f  ^1  County. 

and  remained  there  tor  more  than 
half  a  century,  dying  in  1807  at  eighty  years 
of  age.  In  1762  there  were  about  seventy-five 
Indian  families,  which,  however,  did  not  aver- 
age four  to  a  family.  Till  1870  Marshpee  con- 
tinued a  reservation,  but  in  that  year  was  in- 
corporated as  a  town,  and  now  has  about  three 
hundred  inhabitants,  none  of  whom  are  pure- 
blooded  Indians.  They  have  a  public  library 
and  a  Baptist  church,  which  is  supported  partly 
from  the  Williams  fund,  which,  in  1711,  was 
left  to  Harvard  College  "for  the  blessed  work 
of  converting  the  Indians." 


'  Marshapee  or   Mashpee.     The   original  Indian   name    was 
Mashippaug. 


94  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

Eastham,  an  easterly  town  in  Barnstable 
County,  was  one  seat  of  the  Indians,  to 
whom  Rev.  Samuel  Treat  preached  in  their 
language  for  many  years.  Under  him  were 
four  Indian  teachers,  one  each  for  their  sev- 
eral villages.  In  1693  he  wrote  President 
Increase  Mather  that  there  were  five  hun- 
dred and  five  adult  Indians  in  that  place. 
They  lived  in  four  separate  villages,  for 
which  he  procured  schoolmasters.  Mr.  Treat 
was  ordained  as  the  first  minister  of  East- 
ham,  1672,  and  soon  after  began  to  study  the 
vernacular  of  neighboring  natives,  to  whom  he 
devoted  much  time  and  among  whom  there 
were   not   a   few    converts.' 

We  now  return  westward  along  the  cape 
to  Sandwich,  which,  in  1637,  was  purchased 
by  Thomas  Tupper,  a  man  of  property,  to- 
gether with  Richard  Bourne.  Tupper  went 
there  from  Lynn ;  he  was  not  educated  for 
the  ministry,  yet  he  preached  to  the  Indians 
and  gathered  a  church  consisting  of  them. 
In  1693  he  regarded  one  hundred  and  eighty 
Indians   as   true    Christians. 

The  name  of  another  layman  in  that  neigh- 
borhood should  be  mentioned  —  Josiah  Cotton, 
a  brother  of  Rowland  Cotton  just  mentioned. 
He    was   a   judge,   but    preached    more    or   less 


'  Mather's  Magnalia,  B.  VI,  Sec.  3. 


AMONG  INDIANS.  95 

to  the  Indians  at  Manomet  —  now  known  as 
Monument,  a  part  of  Sandwich  —  and  at  other 
settlements  under  an  engagement  which  con- 
tinued for  nearly  forty  years.  He  was  a 
graduate  of  Harvard  College,  1698,  and  stud- 
ied divinity,  but  was  never  ordained.  He 
composed  a  copious  Indian  and  English  vo- 
cabulary. 

We  will  follow  the  coast  up  to  Plymouth, 
the  oldest  town  in  New  England  and  thirty- 
seven  miles  southeast  from  Boston.  This  was 
the  chief  place  of  ministerial  labor  performed 
by  John  Cotton,  son  of  the  well- 
known  John  Cotton,  of  Boston.  P^y°^«"th. 
His  ordination  took  place  here  in  1669,  and 
for  about  thirty  years  he  preached  also  to 
congregations  of  Indians  in  the  neighborhood, 
of  whom  about  five  hundred  were  under  his 
care.  He  was  a  master  of  their  language; 
and  a  revision  of  Eliot's  Bible  fell  to  him. 
His  two  sons,  Josiah  and  Rowland,  have 
already    been    mentioned. 

Returning    now    to    Massachusetts    Bay    Col- 
on}^,   we     find     among    the     contemporaries     of 
John    Eliot    some     who    studied 
the  language  of  the  natives,  and      Massachusetts 

1         .  '  Colony. 

yet    more    who   interested   them- 
selves   in    their    welfare.      It    is    not    necessary 
to    mention     again    the     name    of    Major    Gen- 
eral    Gookin,     who     was     superintendent     and 


96  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

firm  friend  of  the  Indians ;  who  cooperated 
efficiently  with  Eliot ;  the  only  magistrate 
who  befriended  the  Christian  Indians  in  the 
time  of  King  Philip's  War,  for  which  he 
was  abused  and  insulted.  He  died  a  poor 
man,  March  19,  1687.  One  of  his  two  sons 
who  became  ministers,  Daniel,  was  a  pastor 
at  Sherborn,  having  at  the  same  time  some 
care   of  the    Indians   at   Natick. 

Peter  Thatcher,  son  of  Rev.  Thomas  Thatcher, 
first  minister  of  the  Old  South  Church,  Boston 
(ordained  1681),  conducted  a  monthly  lecture 
to  the  Indians. 

Rev.  Grindall  Rawson,  a  son  of  Secretary 
Edward  Rawson,  was  ordained  pastor  of  the 
church  in  Mendon  about  1680,  and  preached 
to  the  Indians  of  that  place  in  their  own 
language  Sunday  evenings,  though  under  great 
discouragements  and  not  with  great  success. 

Samuel  Danforth,  minister  at  Taunton  (1687- 
1727) — the  son  of  Samuel  Danforth,  a  col- 
league of  Eliot  (1650-1674)  —  translated  five 
sermons  of  Dr.  Increase  Mather  into  Indian, 
which  were  printed  in  1698.  He  labored  for 
the  welfare  of  the  Indians  in  his  neighbor- 
hood, preaching  to  them  in  their  vernacular 
on  certain  "  lecture  days."  A  manuscript  In- 
dian dictionary  of  his,  which  has  never  been 
printed,  is  in  the  library  of  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society,  Boston. 


AMONG  INDIANS.  97 

We  next  move  westward,  and  to  the  pe- 
riod of  more  than  a  century  and  a  half  now 
gone  by.  John  Sergeant/  who  was  four  years 
a  tutor  in  Yale  College,  after  graduating  there, 
1729,  visited  Housatonic,  an  Indian  village 
in  Western  Massachusetts,  and  preached  to 
those  living  there.  He  had  long  been  in  the 
habit  of  praying  God  daily  that  he  would 
send  him  to  the  heathen  that  he  might  turn 
them  from  darkness  to  light.  When  he  first 
went  to  the  place  just  named 
(173-i)  the  natives,  called  "River  ^count''^ 
Indians,"  numbered  less  than   fifty.  ""  ^' 

Most  of  the  same  tribe  lived  within  the  lim- 
its of  New  York  among  the  Dutch,  who  had 
made  no  attempt  to  civilize  or  Christianize 
them.  There  were  a  few  in  the  northwest 
corner  of  Connecticut.  This  was  at  that  time 
the  largest  tribe  neighboring  to  any  English 
settlements  in  New  England.  The  village 
first  visited  by  Sergeant  was  in  the  town 
of  Sheffield,  and  there  was  another  village 
eighteen  miles  farther  up  the  Housatonic 
River  within  the  bounds  of  Stockbridge.  Noth- 
ing less  than  a  deep  conviction  of  Christian 
duty  could  have  reconciled  him  to  exchange 
academic    society  and  occupation    for  hardships 


'  Samuel  Hopkins  :    Historical   Memoirs  Relating  to  the  Housa- 
turmock  Indians.     Boston,  N.  E.     1750. 


98  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

otherwise  unwelcome.  Two  sons  of  prominent 
Indians  accompanied  Sergeant  to  New  Haven, 
who  instructed  them  there  till  his  college  en- 
gagement was  closed. 

One  great  obstacle  to  his  success  among  the 
Indians  was  the  neighboring  traders,  chiefly 
Dutch,  who  found  that  their  nefarious  gains 
;from  the  sale  of  rum  were  endangered,  and 
who  represented  that  the  new  religion  was  not 
a  good  one,  and  that  it  was  the  design  of  the 
English  to  enslave  them.  But  Sergeant  set 
himself  resolutely  to  work  and  to  prayer.  The 
next  year  (1735)  he  received  ordination,  his 
excellency  the  governor  of  the  colony  and  the 
commissioners  of  the  missionary  corporation  be- 
ing present. 

His  instruction  of  the  children,  as  well  as 
more  formal  ministrations,  were  at  first  through 
an  interpreter;  but  he  saw  that  a  knowledge 
of  the  vernacular  was  indispensable,  and  so  set 
himself  earnestly  to  acquire  it.  After  about 
three  years  he  began  to  preach  in  that  difficult 
tongue,  and  after  two  years  more  (1739)  he 
had  so  far  mastered  it  that  the  Indians  were 
accustomed  to  say,  "  Our  minister  speaks  our 
language  better  than  we  ourselves  can  do."  ■ 
He  translated  prayers,  portions  of  Scripture, 
and  Dr.  Watts'  Catechism  for  Children.  Dr. 
Watts   sent   the    contribution  of  a   few   friends, 

■  Note  19. 


AMONG  INDIANS.  99 

amounting   to   seventy   pounds,  to  aid   the   mis- 
sion. 

In  the  course  of  his  second  year  of  labor 
(1736)  a  township  of  six  miles  square,  within 
the  limits  of  Stockbridge,  was  granted  to  the 
Indians  by  the  General  Provincial  Court,  and 
they  began  to  remove  there  as  a  place  of  com- 
mon settlement.  Previously  they  had  moved 
about  in  small  groups  according  as  the  seasons 
for  fishing  or  the  chase  invited.  A  few  white 
families  settled  at  Stockbridge,  partly  for  ben- 
efit to  the  natives,  and  Sergeant  also  estab- 
lished himself  there.  Mr.  Timothy  Woodbridge 
became  his  assistant  and  taught  a  school.  Mr. 
Isaac  Hollis,  of  London,  nephew  of  Thomas  Mol- 
lis, the  benefactor  of  Harvard  College,  offered, 
through  Dr.  Coleman,  of  Boston,  to  support 
twelve  scholars  under  the  care  of  Sergeant 
from  year  to  year.'  On  this  Hollis  foundation 
he  received  boys  to  his  own  house.  Through 
the  same  channel  Samuel  Holden,  Esq.,  of  Lon- 
don, made  a  remittance  of  one  hundred  pounds 
for  the  benefit  of  the  mission.  So  favorable 
were  the  representations  of  the  work  made  in 
England  that  his  royal  highness  the  Prince  of 
Wales  headed  a   subscription    (1745)    in   aid   of 


'  The  Rev.  Isaac  Hollis  made  remittance  in  behalf  of  In- 
dian boys:  1732,  £100;  1736,  £56;  1738,  £343  ;  1740,  £447  9s. 
After  this  later  date  £50  annually,  and  subsequently  £120 
each  year. 


100  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

the  boarding  school  by  giving  twenty  guineas ; 
the  Duke  of  Cumberland  followed  with  the  same 
amount ;  the  Duke  of  Dorset,  Lord  Gower,  and 
the  Lord  Chancellor  giving  each  five  guineas. 
Contributions  towards  the  good  work  were  made 
in  Connecticut,  especially  at  Lebanon ;  and  a 
gentleman  in  Hartford,  Mr.  Ellery,  bequeathed 
a  hundred  and  twenty  pounds.  The  General 
Court  of  Massachusetts  favored  the  mission, 
providing  a  ]3lace  of  worship  and  a  schoolhouse 
(1738),  and  also  incurring  expense  for  the  re- 
moval of  inhabitants  to  the  town  which  had 
been  given,  as  before  mentioned.  Later,  having 
a  mixed  congregation  of  Indians  and  English, 
Mr.  Sergeant  preached  in  both  languages,  two 
sermons  in  each,  on  the  Lord's  Day. 

During  the  period  of  his  labor  at  Stockbridge 
he  visited  Indians  elsewhere  in  Massachusetts 
and  in  Connecticut,  besides  a  tour  among  those 
on  the  Susquehanna  and  Delaware  Rivers,  dis- 
tant more  than  two  hundred  miles  from  Stock- 
bridge.  Sergeant  died  July  27,  1749,  in  the 
thirty-ninth  year  of  his  age.  A  daughter  of 
his  was  the  grandmother  of  the  late  President 
Mark  Hopkins. 

When  Sergeant  began  his  work  there  were 
in  the  place  of  his  first  visit  less  than  fifty  In- 
dians; at  the  time  of  his  death  there  were  at 
Stockbridge  over  fifty-three  families,  numbering 
two  hundred  and    eighteen  souls,  of  whom  one 


AMONG  INDIANS.  101 

hundred  and  twenty-nine  were  baptized;  wliile  of 
these,  forty-two  were  communicants.  The  whole 
number  baptized  by  him  was  one  hundred  and 
eighty-two.  The  attendance  in  Mr.  Woodbridge's 
school  averaged  about  forty. 

From  intemperance,  a  prevailing  and  ruinous 
practice  of  the  Indians,  they  were,  for  the  most 
part,  recovered.  Their  bark  wigwams  gave  place 
to  houses  well  built  after  the  manner  of  white 
neighbors,  of  whom  there  were  a  dozen  families 
at  the  time  of  Sergeant's  decease.  Dissensions 
among  the  English  residents  and  other  causes 
—  the  French  war  of  1744  and  onward  one  of 
them — interfered  with  the  success  of  Sergeant 
as  minister  and  of  Mr.  Woodbridge  as  teacher. 

After  the  death  of  Mr.  Sergeant  about  ninety 
Mohawk   Indians   came   from    the    neio-hborhood 
of  Albany  to  live  at  Stockbridge,  especially  in 
the    winter    of    1750-51.      Meanwhile   the   Rev. 
Jonathan  Edwards,'  having  been  dismissed  from 
the  church  in  Northampton  (June, 
1750),  received   proposals  from  the       ^Xlrds 
commissioners,  residing    in    Boston, 
of  the    Society  in    London   for  Propagating  the 
Gospel   in   New   England   and   the    Parts  Adja- 
cent   to    become    a    missionary   at    Stockbridge. 
He  was  also  invited  by  the  church  and  congre- 
gation in   that   place  to  become  their   minister. 
This   was   early   in   the   winter   of  1751.      Soon 


*  Dwight's  Life  of  Edwards,  Chapters  XXV-XXVIII. 


102  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

after  receiving  these  overtures,  but  before  de- 
ciding upon  them,  he  went  to  Stockbridge  and 
remained  there  till  early  spring,  preaching  to 
the  English  inhabitants  and,  through  an  inter- 
preter, to  the  Indians.  He  accepted  the  two 
offers,  and  his  formal  installation  took  place 
the  eighth  of  August  that  year.  Edwards 
preached  twice  weekly  to  the  whites,  and  once 
a  week  each  to  the  Housatonics  and  the  Mo- 
hawks. Thus,  like  Eliot,  the  Mayhews,  Cot- 
ton, and  other  Massachusetts  ministers  who 
labored  in  behalf  of  the  Indians,  he  had  at  the 
same  time  an  English  congregation  in  charge. 
During  his  six  years'  residence  at  Stockbridge 
Edwards  wrote  several  elaborate  theological 
treatises  —  The  Freedom  of  the  Will,  G-od's  Last 
End  m  Creation,  The  Nature  of  Virtue,  and 
Original   Sin. 

The  circumstances  and  the  period  of  his  mis- 
sionary work  were  peculiarly  unfavorable.  Ve- 
hement dissensions  existed  among  the  white 
residents  at  Stockbridge.  The  disbursement  of 
funds  furnished  by  the  colonial  legislature,  by 
the  commissioners  at  Boston,  and  by  individ- 
uals in  England  became  a  temptation,  especially 
to  one  family,  which  arrayed  itself  persistently 
against  Edwards.  Owing  to  attendant  unfaith- 
fulness and  mismanagement,  which  he  found  it 
impossible  to  correct  —  which  were  much  like 
what  continues  now  to  be  witnessed  on  Indian 


AMONG  INDIANS.  103 

reservations  —  most  of  the  Mohawks  and  some 
of  the  other  Indians  left  the  place  in  natural 
disgust.  Hardly  three  years  had  passed  before 
French  and  Indian  hostilities  began,  and  Stock- 
bridge,  being  a  frontier  settlement,  was  much 
exposed.  Several  persons  were  killed  there  as 
early  as  1754,  and  great  alarm  prevailed.  Evan- 
gelistic endeavors  always  suffer  in  war  time.  In 
1757  Edwards  was  called  —  a  son-in-law.  Presi- 
dent Burr,  having  died  —  to  take  his  place  as 
president  of  New  Jersey  College  at  Princeton. 

No  one  in  this  class  need  be  told  that  Presi- 
dent Jonathan  Edwards  had  a  son,  Dr.  Jonathan 
Edwards,  who  also  became  president  of  a  col- 
lege —  Union  College,  Schenectady,  New  York. 
This  son,  removing  when  six  years  of  age  with 
his  father  to  Stockbridge,  learned  the  Mohegan 
language  at  that  place.  The  elder  Edwards  de- 
signed that  this  son  should  be  a  missionary 
among  the  aborigines,  and  hence  sent  him  at 
ten  years  of  age  (1755),  with  the  Rev.  Gideon 
Hawley,  to  learn  the  language  of  the  Oneidas 
near  the  head  waters  of  the  Susquehanna.  He 
became  president  of  the  college  above  named 
(1799),  and  but  two  years  later  died  at  the 
age  of  fifty-six.  Like  his  father,  he  was  a  tutor 
in  the  institution  whence  he  had  graduated; 
he  had  two  pastorates;  his  term  in  the  college 
presidency  was  brief — only  two  years;  and  his 
age  was  only  two  years  greater  than  that  of  his 


104  PEOTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

father — fifty-six  instead  of  fifty-four.  Owing  to 
these  coincidences  it  is  not  strange  that  the 
two  men  should  sometimes  be  mistaken  for  one 
another  by  ill-informed  persons,  especially  in 
Europe. 

Rev.  Stephen  West,  D.D.,  was  ordained  at 
Stockbridge  in  1759,  and  among  the  many  ad- 
mitted to  the  church  during  his  ministry  were 
twenty-two  Indians.  In  1775  he  gave  up  the 
care  of  the  Indians,  and  received  his  support 
as  pastor  wholly  from  the  whites. 

-    .  John    Sergeant,    Jr.,   son    of    the 

Laborers.  _      '='  ' 

first  missionary  at  Stockbridge,  ac- 
quired the  Mohegan  '  language  in  boyhood,  and 
having  studied  divinity  with  Dr.  West  took 
charge  of  the  Indians  as  their  missionary.  He 
labored  there,  preaching  to  them  and  teaching 
in  an  Indian  school,  for  ten  years ;  but  in  1785 
this  relict  of  aboriginalism  was  removed  to  land 
given  them  by  the  Oneidas  in  the  State  of 
New  York  —  a  tract  the  same  in  size  (six  miles 
square)  as  the  Massachusetts  court  gave  to 
the  Indians  at  Stockbridge.  The  village  built 
there  bore  the  name  of  New  Stockbridge.  The 
well-known  Mohegan  preacher,  Samson  Occom, 
visited  the  place  and  a  division  occurred,  one 
Indian  church  choosing  him  for  pastor  and  the 
rest  remaining  with  Mr.  Sergeant.  When  Mr. 
Occom   died    (1792)    a  reunion  of  the  churches 


Moheakunnuk  (Mu-he-con-nuk). 


AMONG  INDIANS.  105 

was  effected.  In  the  years  1818  and  1822, 
respectively,  these  New  Stockbridge  Indians, 
separating  into  two  bodies,  removed  to  Indiana 
and  Wisconsin.  Mr.  Sergeant,  unable  to  ac- 
company either  band,  died  (1824)  at  the  age 
of  seventy-seven. 

u-It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  English  colo- 
nists within  the  limits  of  the  present  Common- 
wealth of  Massachusetts  entered  upon  the  work 
of  evangelizing  aborigines  more  generally  and 
continued  therein  more  systematic- 
ally and  with  greater  perseverance       ^"^""^     °"- 

■^  ^    .  ^  siderations. 

than    was   done   in  any  other  New 

England  State.  In  Vermont  and  New  Hamp- 
shire there  were  comparatively  few  Indians. 
Those  in  '  Maine  came  chiefly  under  Roman 
Catholic  influence.  Of  four  prominent  laymen 
who  engaged  in  the  religious  instruction  of 
these  heathen  neighbors  the  names  have  been 
mentioned.  "Some  of  the  Indians,"  says  Cot- 
ton Mather,  "  quickly  built  for  themselves  good 
and  large  meeting  houses  after  the  English 
mode,  in  which,  also  after  the  English  mode, 
they  attended  the  things  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  And  some  of  the  English  were  helpful 
to  them  on  this  account,  among  whom  I  ought 
particularly  to  mention  that  learned,  pious,  and 
charitable  gentleman,  the  worshipful  Samuel 
Sewall,  Esq.,  who  at  his  own  charge  built  a 
meeting  house  for  one  of  the  Indian  congrega- 


106  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

tions  and  gave  those  Indians  cause  to  pray  for 
him  under  that  character  — '  he  loveth  our  na- 
tion, for  he  hath  built  us  a  synagogue.' " ' 

All  circumstances  considered — relative  popu- 
lation and  valuation,  more  especially  the  early 
condition  of  exiles  making  a  home  for  them- 
selves in  an  unreclaimed  wilderness  —  the  mis- 
sionary spirit  of  our  fathers  not  merely  equaled 
but  surpassed  that  of  the  present  generation. 

We  pass  to  Rhode  Island.  Roger  Williams,  so 
well  known  in  the  early  history  of  Massachu- 
setts, was  born  in  Wa.les  (1599)  five  years  ear- 
lier than  John  Eliot.  He  was  converted  at  ten 
years  of  age,  was  graduated  at  Pem- 

„rZ^^^         broke  College,  Cambridge,  and  came 
Williams.  .  ^  '  »  ' 

to  this  country  the  same  year  that 
the  apostle  to  the  Indians  arrived  (1631).  He 
became  the  father  of  Rhode  Island,  or  rather 
of  the  Providence  Plantation  (1636),  the  same 
year  that  Hooker  and  his  associates  reached 
Hartford,  Connecticut.  In  1654  he  was  chosen 
president  of  the  colony  in  Rhode  Island. 

While  pastor  previously  at  Plymouth  he 
gained  acquaintance  with  the  sachems  of  the 
Wampanoags  and  Narragansets  and  learned 
their  language.  He  continued  a  Avarm  friend 
of  the  Indians  and  acquired  great  influence 
among  them.  In  1645  he  was  largely  instru- 
mental    in     securing    a    treaty    which,    to    all 


Magnolia,  B.  Ill  (h). 


AMONG    INDIANS.  107 

appearance,  prevented  a  war  upon  the  New 
England  colonies. 

Roger  Williams  was  the  first  to  publish  a 
vocabulary  of  the  Indian  language.  It  was  pre- 
pared during  a  voyage  to  England  and  entitled 
A  Key  to  the  Language  of  America  (London, 
1643),  and  consisted  of  thirty-two  chapters, 
each  containing  a  short  list  of  words,  dialogues 
in  Indian  and  English,  also  a  poem.  With  ref- 
erence to  acquiring  this  vernacular  he  states: 
"God  was  pleased  to  give  me  a  painful,  patient 
spirit  to  lodge  with  them  in  their  filthy,  smoky 
holes,  even  while  I  lived  at  Plymouth  and 
Salem,  to  gain  their  tongue."  In  the  Key  he 
states  that  many  hundreds  of  times  "he  had 
preached  to  great  numbers,  to  their  great  de- 
light and  great  convictions,"  "with  all  sorts  of 
nations  of  them,  from  one  end  of  the  country 
to  the  other."  Certain  limitations  to  this  are 
obvious. 

That  Roger  Williams  was  a  man  of  intrepid- 
ity and  that  he  was  a  power  for  good  among 
the  Indians  admits  of  no  doubt.  Positive 
evidence  of  any  marked  Christian  results  are 
wanting.  He  established  no  schools  and  gath- 
ered no  churches.  Regarding  organization  and 
ordinances,  his  views  would  seem  to  have  re- 
sembled those  of  the  present  English  Plymouth 
Brethren.  There  is  a  tinge  of  boasting  as 
well   as    of  un scriptural   sentiment    in   what  he 


108  PROTESTANT    MISSIONS. 

says  regarding  the  natives : '  "I  could  readily 
have  brought  the  whole  country  to  have  ob- 
served one  day  in  seven ;  to  have  received  a 
baptism  or  washing,  though  it  were  in  rivers, 
as  the  first  Christians  and  the  Lord  Jesus  him- 
self did ;  to  have  come  to  a  stated  church 
meeting,  maintained  priests  and  forms  of  prayer, 
and  a  whole  form  of  antichristian  worship."  == 

Westerly,  the  southwestern  town  of  Rhode 
Island, 3  was  within  the  territory  occupied  by 
the  Niantics.  To  those  Indians  the  Society  for 
Propagating  the  Gospel  sent,  in  1733,  the  Rev. 
Joseph  Park  "  as  a  missionar}^  to  the  Indians 
and  such  English  as  would  attend 
es  er  y.  .^  Westerly."  He  does  not  appear 
to  have  been  a  converted  man  till  some  years 
later,  when  the  awakening  of  1740  began.  His 
testimony  regarding  the  spiritual  state  of  that 
region  is  noteworthy :  "  Before  this  day  of 
God's  power  there  was  not,  as  far  as  ever  I 
learned,  one  house  of  prayer  in  the  place,  in 
two  large  towns  containing  some  hundreds  of 
families,  nor  any  that  professed  the  faith  of 
God's  own  operation  or  the  doctrine  of  grace. 
Now,  when   the    Lord    set  up   his    sanctuary   in 


'  In  the  tract,  Christening  Makes  Not  Christians. 

^  Reuben  A.  Guild,  LL.D.,  in  the  Home  Mission  Monthly,  1892, 
pp.  325-331.  James  D.  Knowles :  Memoir  of  Roger  Williams. 
Boston,  1834. 

^  Frederick  Denison  :  Westerly  and  its  Witnesses,  1G26-1876. 
Providence,  1878.     Pp.  28-82. 


AMONG   INDIANS.  109 

the  midst  of  us,  those  heads  of  families  who 
had  been  the  happy  subjects  of  his  grace  im- 
mediately set  up  the  worship  of  God  in  their 
houses."'  Niantics  shared  in  some  measure  with 
their  white  neighbors  the  blessings  of  that  gra- 
cious visitation.  A  church  was  formed  in  1750. 
Ninigret  seems  to  have  been  gratified  with  the 
change  in  his  tribe. 

The  same  society  sent  Mr.  Bennet  (1764)  as  a 
teacher.  He  met  with  encouragement,  and  the 
next  year  Thomas  Ninigret,  known  as  "  King 
Tom "  —  who  came  to  the  throne,  such  as  it 
was,  in  1746  —  petitioned  the  society  to  estab- 
lish free  schools.  His  letter  of  request  closes 
expressing  the  hope  "  that  when  time  with  us 
shall  be  no  more;  that  when  we  and  the  chil- 
dren, over  whom  you  have  been  such  benefac- 
tors, shall  leave  the  sun  and  stars,  we  shall 
rejoice  in  a  far  superior  light." 

Rev.  William  Thompson  "ministered  to  the 
Pequots  at  Mystic  and  Paweatuck"  from  1657 
to  1663 ;  he  received  aid  from  the  Society  for 
Propagating  the  Gospel.  The  name  of  Samuel 
Niles  is  mentioned  as  an  earnest  "Indian  ex- 
horter."  The  first  Niantic  ordained  as  minister 
of  that  church  was  James  Simons ;  the  last  of 
any  note  was  Moses  Stanton,  ordained  in  1823. 
The  present  meeting  house,  built  of  stone,  was 
put  up  in  1860,  but  will  not  improbably  yet 
become  like  the  gravestone  of  Takawompait  at 


110  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

Natick,  a  mere  monument  of  a  vanished  Niantic 
tribe. 

We  next  come  to  Connecticut.  One  of  the 
earliest  instances  of  preaching  to  the  Indians  in 
Connecticut  was  by  John  Eliot.  He  had  occa- 
sion to  come  to  the  city  of  Hartford  to  attend  a 
council.'  After  that  he  addressed  the  Podunks 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river.  But  they 
were  ill-disposed  toward  the  English  and  toward 
the  gospel.     Eliot  also  visited  that 

_  ,.    ^      part   of  the    Nipmuck  country  sit- 

Connecticut.  . 

uated  in  the  northeastern  part  of 
the  State,  and  a  rock  in  the  town  of  Wood- 
stock, not  far  from  the  residence  of  Henry  C. 
Bowen,  Esq.,  is  pointed  out  on  which  the  apos- 
tle to  the  Indians  preached.  It  was  in  the 
years  1673  and  1674  that  Eliot,  accompanied 
by  Gookin,  traveled  through  this  region  intent 
upon  making  known  the  word  of  life. 

Abraham  Pierson,='  who  became  the  first  min- 
ister in  Branford,  New  Haven  County,  in  1644, 
graduated  at  the  University  of  Cambridge,  Eng- 
land, the  year  after  Eliot  and  Roger  Williams 
came  to  Massachusetts  (1632).  Having  previ- 
ously acquired  the  native  language  on  Long 
Island,  he  preached  to  the  red  men  there  and 
did  the  same  in  several  plantations  of  the  New 
Haven  Colony  during  his  twenty  years'  minis- 


^  Encyclopcedia  of  Missions,  I,  466. 
*  Mather's  Magnolia,  B.  Ill,  Chap.  8. 


AMONG   INDIANS.  Ill 

try  in  Connecticut  before  removing  to  Newark, 
New  Jersey.  No  marked  success  appears  to 
have  attended  this  department  of  his  labor. 

Rev.  James  Fitch  came  to  New  England 
seven  years  later  than  Eliot  and  Roger  Wil- 
liams (1638).  He  was  the  first  pastor  of  a 
church  in  Saybrook,  which  was  removed  to 
Norwich  in  1660,  where  his  ministry  continued 
many  years.  He  acquainted  himself  with  the 
language  of  the  Mohegans  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Norwich,  preached  to  them,  and  gave  them 
a  part  of  his  own  land  as  an  inducement  to 
adopt  settled  and  civilized  habits.  He  gathered 
a  church  of  forty  members ;  but  King  Philip's 
War  arrested  the  good  work  there  as  elsewhere. 

Jonathan  Barber,  employed  by  the  Society 
for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  New  Eng- 
land, labored  among  the  Mohegans  from  1733 
to  1742. 

Moravians,    too,    were    early    on    the    ground. 

Christian  Henry  Ranch,  a  missionary,  landed  in 

New   York,   1740,    and    proceeding    to    Duchess 

County     began    work    among    the 

7  Moravians. 

Mohegans  there.      Phis  was  a  year 

before  David  Brainerd  commenced  his  labors  at 
Kaunaumeek.  Other  Moravian  laborers  joined 
Ranch.  Indians  were  drawn  to  them  from  the 
western  part  of  Connecticut,  especially  from 
Kent,  in  Litchfield  Count}'.  The  brethren  vis- 
ited  that   place,  as   well    as    Sharon    and    Salis- 


112  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

bury;  also  parts  of  New  Haven  and  Fairfield 
Counties.  These  scattered  remnants  of  Mo- 
hegans,  Narragansets,  and  Wampanoags  were 
known  in  those  regions  as  Scatticokes.  But 
hostile  white  legislation  and  trade  drove  the 
missionaries  away,  and  many  of  the  Christian 
Indians  followed  them  to  Pennsylvania;  but 
missionaries  continued  to  visit  from  time  to 
time  the  Indians  who  remained  behind. 

Rev.  Eleazer  Wheelock,  D.D.,  of  Lebanon,  Con- 
necticut, established  a  school,  being  impressed  by 
the  condition  of  the  Indians  in  that  neighbor- 
hood, which  had  reference  largely  to  civilizing 
and  Christianizing  them.  He  met 
with  encouragement;  but  not  being 
able  to  carry  on  and  especially  to  enlarge  the 
work  at  his  own  expense,  he  appealed  to  the 
public.  In  1766  he  sent  the  Rev.  Mr.  Whittaker, 
a  minister  of  Norwich,  and  Samson  Occom  to 
Great  Britain  for  the  purpose  of  soliciting  aid. 
In  England  they  raised  about  seven  thousand 
pounds.  The  society  in  Scotland  issued  a  me- 
morial to  the  ministers  of  that  country,  and 
the  result  was  about  two  thousand  pounds, 
which  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  society  and 
on  which  interest  accrued  in  years  when  no 
remittance  was  made.  The  funds  in  England 
were  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  board  of  trust, 
of  which  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth  was  the  head. 

A   house    and  two  acres  of  land  having  been 


AMONG   INDIANS.  113 

given  by  Joshua  Moor,  a  farmer,  the  institution 
took  the  name  of  "  Moor's  Charity  School." 
The  legishitures  of  Connecticut  and  Massachu- 
setts made  grants  in  aid,  and  in  1762  Dr. 
Wheelock  had  more  than  twenty  youths  under 
his  care.  Unable  to  secure  land  enough  in  Leb- 
anon, a  site  was  selected  in  New  Hampshire, 
where  the  present  town  of  Hanover  stands. 
The  school  was  transferred  to  that  place  and 
Dartmouth  College  founded,  1769.  A  charter 
for  both  institutions  was  afterwards  obtained, 
but  the  funds  for  each  were  separately  admin- 
istered.' A  good  deal  of  unsatisfactory  corre- 
spondence ensued  between  Dr.  Wheelock  and  his 
successors,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  society  in 
Scotland  on  the  other;  also  between  the  board 
of  commissioners  in  Boston  and  the  society. 
One  chief  occasion  of  interchange  of  letters 
was  the  circumstance  that  Indian  youths,  whose 
expenses  were  to  be  met,  did  not  present  them- 
selves at  the  college. 

Dr.  Wheelock  had  charge  of  the  school  in 
Lebanon  about  thirty  years,  and  the  further 
charge  of  it,  as  well  as  of  the  college  at  Han- 
over, for  nine  years.  He  found,  however,  that 
Indian  young  men,  though  well  educated,  could 
not  generally  be  depended   on  as   educators   of 


' "  Wheelock's  School  was  incorporated  as  Dartmouth  Col- 
lege : "  Encyclopedia  of  Missions,  I,  p.  457.  This  misconception 
is  often  met  with,  but  the  two  institutions  were  kept  distinct. 


114  PROTESTANT    MISSIONS. 

their  countrymen.  Of  forty  such  —  the  cele- 
brated Brant  one  of  them  —  who  had  been 
under  his  care,  one  half  returned  to  savage  life. 
With  the  exception  of  Samson  Occom,  it  does 
not  appear  that  any  Indians  trained  at  Moor's 
School  turned  their  education  to  good  account 
in  a  marked  degree. 

Samson  Occom  sought  admission  to  the  fore- 
named  school,  1743,  where,  in  the  family  of 
Dr.  Wheelock,  he  remained  four  or  five  years. 
He  was  the  first  aboriginal  preacher  from  the 
new  world  who  visited  Great  Brit- 
ain. He  had  been  ordained  by  the 
Suffolk  Presbytery  of  Long  Island  (1759),  and 
during  the  visit  referred  to  he  preached  to 
thronged  audiences  between  three  and  four 
hundred  times  in  different  parts  of  the  king- 
dom. 

Before  going  to  England  he  taught  a  school 
in  New  London  (1748),  but  went  thence  to 
Montauk,  on  Long  Island,  where  for  a  decade 
he  taught  among  the  Indians  and  preached  to 
them  in  their  own  language.  In  1786  he  re- 
moved to  Brothertown,  or  Brotherton,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Utica,  New  York,  and  labored 
among  the  Indians  who,  after  enjoying  the  minis- 
try of  Sergeant  and  President  Edwards,  had  been 
transplanted  from  Stockbridge,  Massachusetts.  A 
few  Mohegans  from  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island, 
and   Long   Island   removed   to   Brotherton   near 


AMONG  INDIANS.  115 

the  time  that  Occom  went  there.  He  died 
1792,  aged  about  seventy,  and  his  funeral  was 
attended  by  upwards  of  three  hundred  Indians. 
A  sermon  preached  by  him  at  the  execution  of 
Moses  Paul,  an  Indian,  in  New  Haven,  was 
published,  and  he  is  credited  with  being  the 
author  of  the  impressive  hymn: 

"  Awaked  by  Sinai's  awful  sound." ' 

The  story  of  other  early  evangelistic  efforts  in 
behalf  of  the  six  nations  and  in  behalf  of  Indi- 
ans in  the  southern  colonies  would  be  wearisome. 
The  character,  habits,  and  environment  of  the 
aboriginal  tribes  were  unfriendly  to  evangelistic 

approaches.     The  race  was,  in  some 

, .      ,  .  Conclusion, 

respects,  comparatively    an    imprac- 
ticable one.     Indifference  to  neighboring  superi- 
ority,  aversion    to    industry,   apathy   alternating 
with   thirst    for    war,   appeared    to    doom   them 
to   self-destruction.     As  regards  agriculture  and 
other  fundamental  arts,  not  to  mention  refining 
arts,  they  were  the  antipodes   of  the   busy  Chi- 
nese and  the  quick-witted  Japanese.    Their  sen- 
sibilities were  the  dullest ;  they  seldom  wept  or 
smiled  ;  they  had  no  ennobling  traditions. 
I      The   problem    of   Christianizing   red  men  was 
S  a  more  formidable  one  than  our  fathers  at  first 
}  imagined.     The  early  planters  of  New  England 
\  engaged   in   the    good   work   quite   as   promptly 


'  See  Julian's  Dictionary  of  Hymnology,  p.  855. 


116  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

as  could  reasonably  have  been  expected,  and 
in  some  notable  instances  their  success  was  be- 
yond reasonable  expectation. 

Taking  a  retrospective  glance  at  the  path 
thus  far  traversed,  it  will  be  recollected  that 
apparent  ignorance  in  regard  to  Protestant  mis- 
sions prior  to  the  nineteenth  century,  or  an  inex- 
cusable oversight  regarding  them,  was  avowed 
as  one  occasion  for  this  series  of  studies.  It 
is  a  common  but  unintelligent  impression  that 
interest  and  effort  in  the  line  of  foreisrn  evan- 
gelization  had  scarcely  any  place  in  New  Eng- 
land, or  in  the  country  at  large,  or  elsewhere 
in  Protestant  Christendom,  till  near  the  close 
of  the  last  century.  Consequently  undue  praise 
has  been  bestowed  upon  the  onward  movement 
which  then  took  place.  Noteworthy  it  was; 
not,  however,  on  the  score  of  priority  and  en- 
tire originality.  It  was  an  outcome  of  thoughts 
and  influences  which  had  long  existed.  One  of 
the  most  northern  sources  of  the  River  Jordan 
is  a  spring  at  Hasbeiya,  which  sends  forth  a 
stream  sufficient  at  once  to  turn  a  mill  wheel; 
but  it  is  fed  by  rivulets  under  ground  that 
trickle  unseen  from  the  heights  and  slopes  of 
Anti-Lebanon.  Similar  is  it  usually  with  sa- 
cred streams  that  water  and  fertilize  the  earth. 
They  start  from  points  various,  remote,  and  ele- 
vated, and  that  attract  little  attention  till  seen 
in  a  combined  and  effective  flow,  y  , 


VI 
DAVID   BRAINERD 


Influence  that  moves  men  heavenward  meas- 
ures personal  excellence.  Religious  character  is 
the  dwelling  place  of  ultimate  spiritual  power. 
To  be  such  as  sweetly  constrains  others  to  holy 
living,  reproducing  similar  traits  and  similar  ac- 
tivities, renders  any  one  worthy  of  study  and  of 
a  portrait.  To  that  class  belongs  David  Brainerd. 
His  brief  career  of  labor  was  remarkable,  but  his 
religious  character  more  remarkable.  His  spirit- 
ual life  was  the  man.  Self-denial  was  complete 
in  him.     Heroism  of  duty  was  his  characteristic. 

When  the  learned  Jerome  laid  down  the  Life 
of  Hilarion  he  said,  "  Well,  Hilarion  shall  be  the 
champion  that  I  will  follow;  his  good  life  shall 
be  my  example  and  his  good  death  my  prec- 
edent." The  biography  of  Brainerd  has  had 
similar  marked  influence  upon  the  piety  of 
numerous  Christian  men.  Dr.  Ryland,  for  ex- 
ample, an  eminent  English  minister,  was  often 
heard   to    remark    that    Brainerd's   Life   ranked 


118  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

with  him  next  to  the  Bible.  "When  reading 
such  lives  as  those  of  Brainerd  and  Doddridge," 
said  Dr.  Chalmers,  "I  have  often  stood  amazed  — 
I  could  almost  say  envious  of  their  power  to  sus- 
tain a  real  and  spiritual  intercourse  with  heaven 

for  large  portions  of  a  whole  day." 
rainer   s     g^^   j^    jg    particularly    appropriate 

that  we  turn  to  the  roll  of  mis- 
sionaries. Brainerd's  life  impressed  and  stim- 
ulated Carey.'  Levi  Parsons,  the  first  Protes- 
tant missionary  to  enter  Jerusalem  (1820)  with 
a  view  to  engage  in  permanent  work  there,  re- 
ceived impulse  from  Brainerd.  He  also  fur- 
nished incitement  to  Marsden,  whose  labors  in 
New  South  Wales  and  in  behalf  of  New  Zea- 
land are  well  known.^ 

Nor  was  Brainerd's  stimulating  influence  lim- 
ited to  such  individuals  in  the  first  instance. 
Through  them  it  has  been  transmitted  to  yet 
others.  Henry  Martyn^  was  indebted  not  a  lit- 
tle to  David  Brainerd ;  and  Professor  Tholuck 
of  Halle  acknowledges  religious  indebtedness 
to  Henry  Martyn.'*  Brainerd's  influence,  ex- 
tending to  various  quarters  of  the  world,  is 
still  prolonged  in  many  a  consecrated  life.     But 


^Memoir,  by   Eustace   Carey.      Chap.   Ill,   Sec.  1.      Life,  by 
George  Smith,  449-50. 

2  J.  B.  Marsden's  Memoirs  of  Samuel  Marsden,  Cliap.  I. 
^Journal  and  Letters,  I,  162,  444. 
*  Note  20. 


DAVID   BRAINERD.  119 

Brainerd  as  a  missionary  can  be  understood  only 
with  the  knowledge  of  him  as  a  Christian. 

Haddam,  in  Connecticut,  was  the  place,  and 
April  20,  1718,  the  date,  of  his  birth.  His 
father,  the  Hon.  Hezekiah  Brainerd,  was  a  man 
of  some  prominence  in  the  colony,  and  his  an- 
cestry on  the  maternal  side  was  noteworthy  for 
the  number  of  its  ministers.  Sobriety  and  a 
religious  turn  of  mind  characterized  his  early 
years.  Repeated  awakenings  and  alarms,  at- 
tended by  much  prayer  and  strenuous  effort, 
were  experienced,  but  were  marred 
by  a  self-righteous  element.  Imag-  o*^'"  ^* 
inary  dedication  of  himself  to  God, 
imaginary  good  frames,  with  tenderness  and  ear- 
nestness, at  intervals  marked  his  inner  life. 
These  prolonged  and  vigorous  endeavors,  how- 
ever, proceeded  from  an  aim  to  earn  the  divine 
favor;  they  were  regarded  as  meritorious  and  as 
qualifying  for  acceptance  by  Christ.  Such  striv- 
ing to  make  himself  his  own  saviour  of  course 
did  not  succeed.  The  strictness  of  God's  law, 
the  demand  for  faith  in  Christ  as  a  condition, 
the  divine  sovereignty  as  set  forth  in  Romans  xi, 
awakened  latent  enmity  to  God.  Then  at  length 
he  saw  as  in  a  mirror  his  real  self  —  his  rebellious 
self;  saw  that  hideous  self-conceit  had  been  piling 
up  religious  efforts  in  order  to  make  it  too  hard 
for  God  to  cast  him  off. 

He   was   twenty-one  years   of    age   when   this 


120  PE0TE3TANT   MISSIONS. 

decisive  discovery  took  place.  Thereupon  en- 
sued the  great  spiritual  change.  He  found  that 
he  was  an  utterly  lost  sinner ;  that  no  doings 
of  his  own  could  lay  God  under  obligation  to 
bestow  mercy.  All  things  became  new  to  him. 
"My  soul  rejoiced  with  joy  unspeakable,"  he 
says,    "to    see    such    a    God,    such    a    glorious 

divine   being,   and   I   was   inwardly 
*    *         pleased  and  satisfied  that  he  should 

be  God  over  all  forever  and  ever. 
My  soul  was  so  captivated  and  delighted  with 
the  excellency,  loveliness,  greatness,  and  other 
perfections  of  God  that  I  was  even  swallowed 
up  in  him  —  at  least  to  that  degree  that  I  had 
no  thought  (as  I  remember)  at  first  about  my 
own  salvation  and  scarce  reflected  that  there 
was  such  a  creature  as  myself."  "At  this  time 
the  way  of  salvation  opened  to  me  with  such 
infinite  wisdom,  suitableness,  and  excellency 
that  I  wondered  I  should  ever  think  of  any 
other  way  of  salvation." 

That  year  (1739)  he  entered  Yale  College. 
While  there  a  revival  of  religion  occurred  at 
New  Haven,  and  Brainerd  felt  a  deep  interest 
in  the  spiritual  welfare  of  fellow  students.  The 
conversion  of  the  celebrated  Samuel  Hopkins 
appears  to  have  been  due  to  his  influence. 
But  that  revival  was  attended,  as  elsewhere, 
by  a  degree  of  unhealthful  excitement  and  con- 
sequently   by   some    exceptionable    proceedings. 


DAVID  BKAINERD.  121 

Brainerd  made  privately  a  remark  relating  to 
one  of  the  college  tutors,  which,  being  over- 
heard by  another  student,  was  communicated  to 
an  injudicious  woman,  and  at  length  reported 
to  the  rector  or  president.     A  statement  of  this 

remark   was  extorted   from  those     „  „ 

.  .  College  Career, 

who   heard    it,  for   which   private 

offense  he  was  required  to  make  a  public  con- 
fession. Not  complying  with  that  unauthorized 
demand,  and  having  attended  a  religious  meet- 
ing contrary  to  the  rector's  arbitrary  order,  he 
was  expelled  from  college  in  1742  —  his  junior 
year.  However  inexcusable  the  offense,  the 
discipline  was  still  more  inexcusable.  One  of 
Brainerd's  biographers '  remarks,  "  That  individ- 
ual fully  justified  by  his  subsequent  proceed- 
ings" the  phrase  used  in  regard  to  the  tutor, 
which  was,  "  He  has  no  more  piety  than  this  / 
chair."  Other  indefensible  things  occurred  at 
that  period.  The  Rev.  Samuel  Finley,  after- 
wards president  of  New  Jersey  College,  was 
prosecuted  for  preaching  at  New  Haven,  sent 
to  jail,  and  then  sent  out  of  the  colony  as  a 
vagrant.  Ministers  of  experience  and  general 
good  judgment  were  in  some  instances  carried 
away  by  an  unprecedented  tide  of  excitement. 
Was  it  strange  that  a  young  collegian  should 
be  betrayed   into   an   indiscretion?      No   similar 


'  The  Rev.  Wm.  B.  O.  Peabody.     Chap.  I. 


122  PROTESTANT    MISSIONS. 

imprudence  on  his  part  is  known  to  have  oc- 
curred subsequently.  Ten  years  after  that  date 
President  Clap  himself  went  to  such  a  meeting 
as  the  one  which  the  disciplined  student  had 
attended. 

Christian  graces  shone  with  uncommon  luster 
in  Brainerd.  The  injustice  which  President 
Edwards,  President  Burr,  and  other  dispassion- 
ate friends  believed  to  have  been  done  him,  so 
far  from  souring  his  spirit,  was  the  occasion 
of  a  rare  exercise  of  forgiveness.'  This  truly 
Christlike  temper  was  far  removed  from  self- 
complacent  placidity.  His  sensibilities  and 
emotions  were  keen.     For  example, 

e  igious     Brainerd's    sense    of     unworthiness 
Exercises. 

and  his  self-abasement  were  pro- 
found, and  this  appears  to  have  been  independ- 
ent of  the  occasion  of  his  being  placed  under 
a  ban  at  college.  After  a  century  and  a  half 
the  record  before  us  reads  remarkably  in  a  time 
when  we  hear  so  little  about  conviction  of  sin: 
"I  see  myself  infinitely  vile  and  unworthy;  .  .  . 
an  unfathomable  abyss  of  desperate  wickedness 
in  the  heart."  These  are  the  utterances  of  a 
man  outwardly  irreproachable.  John  Bunyan 
here  comes  to  mind ;  but  Bunyan  had  a  lively 
imagination,  Brainerd  had  not.  He  indulged 
in  none  of  the  illusory  experiences  of  the 
period — sudden  impressions,  bright  visions,  and 

'  Note  21. 


DAVID   BRAINERD.  123 

the  like ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  does  there  ap- 
pear to  have  been  the  faintest  trace  of — what 
may  sometimes  be  discovered  —  a  subtle  self- 
righteous  humiliation,  a  conceit  of  wretchedness. 

Coupled  with  a  deep  and  honest  self-abase- 
ment were  lively  aspirations  after  holiness. 
"  I  know,"  so  he  writes,  "  that  I  long  for 
God  and  a  conformity  to  his  will  in  inward 
purity  and  holiness  ten  thousand  times  more 
than  for  anything  here  below."  What  mystic 
ever  had  more  intense  yearning  for  conformity 
to  God?  But  Brainerd  was  not  a  mystic;  his 
was  no  ill-regulated  fancy,  lifting  him  into  the 
realm  of  enthusiasm  —  a  realm  verging  toward 
pantheism.  Likeness  to  God  and  personal  ab- 
sorption in  God  differ  widely  as  heaven  from 
earth.  David  Brainerd  showed  no  affinity  with 
Eckhart  the  Doctor  Ecstaticus.  Longing  for 
holiness  was  with  him  well  defined ;  was  Scrip- 
tural, and  not  lost  in  rhapsody.  Never  would 
he  listen  to  the  self-flattery  of  perfectionism, 
that  comfortable,  purring  delusion.  Forgiveness 
he  sought  and  obtained  through  Christ,  but  he 
could  not  forgive  himself. 

The  supreme  motive  of  any  man  determines 
his  character.  What  was  Brainerd's  chief  de- 
sire? Evidently  to  renounce  self  and  to  honor 
God.  Listen  to  him  once  more :  "  My  soul 
longed  with  a  vehement  desire  to  live  to  God. 
.  .  .  My  soul  cried.  Lord,  set   up   thy   kingdom 


124  PROTESTANT    MISSIONS. 

for  thine  own  glory;  glorify  thyself  and  I  shall 
rejoice.  Get  honor  to  thy  blessed  name  and  this 
is  all  I  desire.  Do  with  me  just  what  thou  wilt." 
Brainerd  was  constitutionally  melancholy,  and 
that  gave  a  coloring  to  his  religious  experience. 
A  morbid  tendency  had  long  had  place  in  the 
family.  But  who  is  responsible  for  the  temper- 
ament with  which  he  is  born?  The  possibility 
and   duty  of  correcting   inherent 

^         '^  tendencies   are   points   not    easily 

Temperament.  ^  "^ 

determined.  Brainerd  dwelt  dis- 
proportionately on  the  waywardness  of  his 
heart  —  disproportionately  as  compared  with  the 
believer's  privilege  of  contemplating  the  ampli- 
tude of  divine  promises  and  the  freedom  of 
access  to  the  all-cleansing  fountain.  Introspec- 
tion may  not  have  been  too  frequent  nor  too 
searching,  but  there  should  have  been  more  of 
what  he  enjoined  upon  others,  more  of  exultant 
"  looking  unto  Jesus."  /  Holy  joy  upon  the  par- 
don of  sin  is  no  less  wa,rranted  than  godly  sorrow 
for  sin  is  demanded.  -^ 

Brainerd  was  a  man  of  superior  mental  power. 
So  President  Edwards  regarded  him.'  He  led 
his  class  in  college  —  the  largest ,  which  up  to 
that  time  had  entered  Yale.  "^The  logical 
faculty  was  well  developed  In  him  religious 
ardor  is  easily  distinguished  from  the  vehemence 

» Note  22. 


DAVID    BRAINERD.  125 

of  a  wayward  fancy  or  the  vehemence  of  mis- 
guided zeal,  so  sadly  exhibited  by  Separatists 
during  the  period  of  the  Great  Awakening. 

The  question  is  pertinent  here,  Did  Brainerd 
have  exaggerated  views  of  his  sinfulness?  The 
superficiality  of  our  day  may  impute  his  unusual 
self-abasement  to  a  disordered  temperament.  We 
turn  to  some  of  the  memoranda  and  memora- 
bilia of  penitential  autobiography,  those  not  as- 
sociated with  melancholy.  "The  chiefest  of 
apostles "  exclaims,  "  O  wretched  man  that  I 
am!  who  shall  deliver  me  from  the  body  of 
this  death?"  The  godly  Bishop 
Beveridge  confesses  : '    "I  cannot  ^^.^^^ 

pray  but  I  sin ;  I  cannot  hear  or 
preach  a  sermon  but  I  sin;  I  cannot  give  an 
alms  or  receive  the  sacrament  but  I  sin ;  na}^ 
I  cannot  so  much  as  confess  my  sins  but  my 
very  confessions  are  aggravations  of  shame. 
My  repentance  needs  to  be  repented  of;  my 
tears  want  washing."  The  seraphic  Rutherford 
records,  "  Here  I  die  with  wondering  that  jus- 
tice hindereth  not  love,  for  there  are  none  in 
hell  nor  out  of  hell  more  unworthy  of  Christ's 
love."  A  well-known  memorandum  of  Jonathan 
Edwards  need  not  be  cited;  yet  was  any  con- 
temporary of  Jonathan  Edwards  his  superior 
in  piety,  or  more  sober-minded  than  he?  We 
do    not,    of     course,    intimate    that    only    such 

*  Private  Thoughts.     Art.  IV. 


126  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

experience  is  genuine,  nor  that  it  is  to  be 
sought  after.  We  do  inquire,  however,  Has 
any  man  ever  had  unauthorized  discoveries  of 
his  ill-desert?  If  the  piercing  search-light  of 
heaven,  or  merely  the  lightning  of  Sinai,  were 
turned  full  upon  our  inner  selves,  would  any 
9f  us  have  less  profound  convictions  of  sin? 
[  Brainerd's  despondency,  resulting  from  inborn 
predisposition,  differed,  for  instance,  from  a  tran- 
sient experience  of  Sir  Robert  Boyle,  due  to 
the  temporary  unsettlement  of  religious  belief; 
it  differed  from  that  of  Cowper,  which  was  the 
hallucination  of  a  disordered  mind.  It  was 
more  like  that  of  the  German  poet,  Gellert,  a 
thoroughl}^  Christian  man,  yet  the  victim  of 
great  depression  of  spirit^'  In  Brainerd  there 
was  no  affinity  with  enthusiasts  like  George 
Fox,  nor  with  zealots  who  arrogated  a  superior 
sanctity,  as  James  Davenport.  The  hospital  is 
the  appropriate  home  for  such.  Spiritual  de- 
lirium never  seized  him.  The  ship  might  seem 
at  times  to  be  water-logged,  but  compass  and 
helm  were  still  in  good  order.  The  pole  star 
was  always  in  place,  though  the  sun  did  not 
always  shine.y  The  work  of  grace  in  his  soul 
appears  to  have  been  deeper  than  that  of 
Augustine,  and  his  diary  is  of  more  practical 
value  than  the  confessions  of  that  renowned 
church  father.  His  experience  was  an  echo  of 
Romans  vii,  an  object  lesson  of  Edwards  on  the 


DAVID   BRAINEED.  127 

Affections.  This  should  be  added  —  he  kept  his 
melancholy  very  much  to  himself;  it  cast  no 
social  gloom.  He  was  companionable,  free  and 
entertaining  in  conversation,  ^Adth  nothing  of 
the   demure    or   morose    about   him.' 

We  have  thus  seen  the  man.  We  now  turn 
to  his  missionary  career.  A  "  Society  in  Scot- 
land for  Propagating  Christian  Knowledge " 
was  formed  in  the  year  1709.  Not  far  from 
the  time  that  Brainerd  entered  college  prom- 
inent ministers ,  in  the  city  and  neighborhood 
of  New  York  —  among  wliom  were  Jonathan 
Dickinson,  of  Elizabethtown,  and  Rev.  Aaron 
Burr,  both  of  them  afterwards  successively 
presidents    of    New    Jersey    College  —  wrote   to 

Scotland    regarding    the    wretched 

-,.,.  f    T    A-  •       ^1  Preliminary, 

condition  ot  Indians  in  the  prov- 
inces of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsyl- 
vania. The  result  was  an  agreement  by  the 
forenamed  society  to  sustain  two  missionaries 
among  those  Indians,  also  the  appointment  of 
a  commission,  consisting  of  clergymen  and  lay- 
men, to  administer  the  affair  in  behalf  of  the 
Scottish  organization.  The  first  selection  was 
that  of  Azariah  Horton,  who,  beginning  in 
August,  1741,  labored  with  considerable  success 
among  the  Indians  on  Long  Island.  They  had 
two  small  settlements  at  the  east  end  besides 
little    groups    elsewhere.      Intemperance,    intro- 

'  Edwards'  Memoir  of  Brainerd,  382,  473. 


128  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

duced  among  them  by  their  white  neighbors, 
was  the  chief  hindrance.  The  next  year 
(November  25,  1742)  Brainerd  received  ap- 
pointment from  the  commissioners  or  corre- 
spondents. He  had  been  previously  licensed 
as  a  minister  of  the  gospel  by  the  Ministerial 
Association  which  met  at  Danbury,  Connecti- 
cut, July  29,  1742.  His  treatment  at  New 
Haven  did  not  abate  general  respect  for  him. 
At  this  time  a  controversy  was  pending  in 
regard  to  the  land-tenure  of  those  Indians 
among  whom  Brainerd  was  expected  to  labor; 
and  hence,  pursuant  to  information  from  the 
missionary  (Sergeant)  at  Stockbridge,  Massachu- 
setts, he  went  to  Kaunaumeek,"  a  settlement 
in  the  woods  between  Stockbridge  and  Albany, 
nearly  midway   between  the   two 

*      ,        and    about    twenty    miles    from 
Kaunaumeek.  .       -,     i  a       -i   •< 

each.^     He  arrived  there  April  1, 

1743,  and  remained  one  year.^  During  that 
time  he  established  a  school  for  the  children ; 
by  the  aid  of  an  interpreter'*  he  preached. 
Some  degree  of  religious  interest  was  man- 
ifested by  the  Indians;  reformation,  to  a  cer- 
tain extent,  especially  in  their  drinking  habits 
and    superstitious    practices,    took    place.    ^But 


'  Spelled  also  by  Brainerd,  Caunaumuck. 

^  Note  23. 

^  He  left  March  14, 1744. 

*  John  Kauwaumpegwunnaunt. 


DAVm  BRAINERD.  129 

the  influence  of  unprincipled  men,  chiefly 
Dutch,  calling  themselves  Christians,  was  bane- 
ful. By  direction  of  the  commissioners  he 
spent  a  good  deal  of  time  with  Sergeant  in 
studying  the  difiicult  language,  riding  twenty 
miles  through  the  trackless  woods  and  encoun> 
tering  a  good  many  exposures.  Once,  at  least, 
he  was  lost,  and  lay  all  night  in  the  open  air; 
once  he  fell  into  the  river.  He  was  able  to 
compose  sundry  forms  of  prayer  in  the  vernac- 
ular, so  that  he  could  pray  with  his  people; 
also  sundry  psalms,  so  that  he  could  lead  them 
in  the  service  of  song. 

Brainerd's  surroundings  were  very  unfavor- 
able. There  was  no  English  family  within  a 
score  of  miles.  At  first  he  was  obliged  to 
lodge  two  miles  from  the  settlement,  in  a  room 
made  of  logs,  without  a  floor;  his  bed,  a  little 
heap  of  straw  laid  upon  boards ;  his  diet, 
chiefly  boiled  corn  and  bread  baked  in  the 
ashes.  Afterwards  he  moved  into  a  comfort- 
less wigwam  till  he  could  build  a  shanty  for 
himself.  For  bread  he  had  to  go  or  send  ten 
or  fifteen  miles,  which  was  sometimes  mouldy 
and  sometimes  failed  for  days  altogether. 

After  Brainerd's  eleven  and  one  half  months 
at  Kaunaumeek  the  commissioners  proposed  that 
he  should  go  to  the  tribe  originally  contem- 
plated, the  Delawares.  The  Indians  at  Kau- 
naumeek  were   few   in   number,   and   he   wisely 


130  PEOTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

advised  them  to  move  to  Stockbridge,  where 
with  their  brethren  they  would  be  more  ad- 
vantageously situated  under  the  care  of  Mr. 
Sergeant. 

But  will  our  missionary  engage  further  and 
elsewhere  in  this  line  of  labor?  His  health 
has  already  suffered  seriously;  he  had  begun, 
indeed,  to  raise  blood  when  in  college.  He 
has  some  private  property ;  and,  what  is  more, 
strong  inducements  to  remain  in  his  native 
colony  were  held  out.  He  might  have  had  an 
eligible  settlement  at  Millington,  a  village  near 
his  birthplace.  On  his  way  from  Kaunaumeek 
and  its  privations  and  perils  he  met  a  mes- 
senger  from   Easthampton   bearing  a  unanimous 

invitation    to     the     pastorate    of 
No  Wavering. 

that     place  —  then     the     largest, 

pleasantest,  most  wealthy  of  the  parishes  on 
Long  Island.  The  people  were  acquainted 
with  him,  and  had  before  that  more  than 
once  expressed  a  similar  wish.  Was  not  such 
a  repeated  call  to  be  accepted  as  the  clear  in- 
dication of  divine  Providence?  Brainerd  has 
devoted  himself  to  the  welfare  of  Indians,  and 
thoughts  of  comfort,  of  ease,  of  agreeable  so- 
ciety, weigh  lightly  with  him.  He  deemed  it 
the  will  of  God  that  he  should  persevere  in 
his  self-denying  purpose.  Regarding  all  such 
matters  he  said  later,  "  I  would  not  have  the 
choice   to   make    for    myself    for    ten    thousand 


DAVID  BRAINERD.  131 

worlds."  Azariah  Horton,  his  contemporarj, 
had  resisted  a  similar  temptation.  Gordon 
Hall  and  many  another  in  the  present  century- 
have  met  with  similar  inducements  from  the 
home  field  and  have  treated  them  in  the  same 
way.  Lucrative  positions  in  the  employ  of 
governments,  literary  labor,  authorship,  or  a 
professorship  may  present  temptations;  but 
what  then  ?  Shall  the  man  who  has  put  his 
hand  to  the  ministerial  or  missionary  plow  look 
back? 

By  order  of  the  commissioners  Brainerd  pro- 
ceeded to  an  Indian  settlement  at  the  forks 
of  the  Delaware  River  in  Pennsylvania,  near 
where  Easton  is  now  situated.  It  is  seventy 
or  more  miles  from  New  York  City  and  fifty  or 
more  north  of  Philadelphia.  He 
arrived    May   13,    1744.      A   month       ^"longr 

^  Delawares. 

later  he  received  ordmation  by 
Presbytery  at  Newark,  New  Jersey.  In  Octo- 
ber of  the  same  year  he  paid  his  first  visit  to 
Indians  on  the  Susquehanna  —  distant  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  miles — at  a  place  where  was 
a  gathering  of  mixed  tribes,  speaking  various 
languages  and  not  giving  promise  of  being 
easily  reached  by  religious  influence.  The 
visit  was  repeated  in  each  of  the  two  suc- 
ceeding years    (1745   and   1746). 

After  laboring  in  Pennsylvania  for  more  than 
a  year  he  commenced  preaching  (June  5,  1745) 


182  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

at  Crossweeksung,  in  New  Jersey.  The  place, 
now  known  as  Crosswicks,  is  about  fifty  miles 
southeast  from  the  forks  of  the  Delaware  and 
about  sixty  southwest  from  New  York.  It  was 
there  that  he  met  with  his  greatest  success. 
One  year  later  (May  3,  1746)  he,  with  a  body 
of  Indians,  removed  to  Cranberry,  fifteen  miles 
northwest  from  Crosswicks. 

We  will  now  glance  at  some  of  the  lim- 
itations which  attended  that  period  of  labor 
among  the  Delawares.  The  amount  of  embar- 
rassment cannot  be  easily  appreciated  by  us. 
At  the  middle  of  the  18th  century  only  limited 
progress  had  been  made  in  the  construction  of 
roads,  and  this  was  especially  true  as  regards 
Indian  settlements.  Brainerd  had  a  good  deal 
of  traveling  to  perform.      His  first  journey  into 

the    Middle    Colonies,    from    the 
Impediments.  ,.    t-,.  i  i  .,,  , 

neighborhood   oi   l^ishkill,  on  the 

Hudson,    to    the    Delaware,    he    speaks    of    as 

"about  a  hundred  miles  through  a  desolate  and 

hideous    country."       Later     comes    this    record 

(November    22,    1743):    "About    six    at    night 

I    lost    ray    way    in    the    wilderness,   wandered 

over  rocks  and  mountains,  down  hideous  steeps, 

I  through  swamps  and  most  dreadful  and  danger- 

1  ous  places.  .  .  .  Was  much  pinched   with   cold 

and    distressed    with    an   extreme    pain    in    my 

Ihead,  attended  with  sickness  at  my  stomach,  so 

\that   every  step  I  took   was   distressing  to  me." 


DAVID   ERAINERD.  133 

Nor  was  that  a  solitary  instance  of  the  kind. 
He  lodged  on  the  ground  for  several  weeks 
together.  One  night  spent  thus  in  the  woods 
he  was  overtaken  by  a  northeasterly  storm,  and 
having  no  shelter  came  near  perishing.  Again, 
with  nothing  but  some  barks  for  a  shelter  he 
heard  wolves  howling  around  in  the  night. 
During  one  twelvemonth  he  traveled  four 
thousand   miles. 

'  His  state  of  health  is  to  be  kept  in  mind. 
The  journal  makes  mention  of  "  no  appetite ; " 
"  distressing  weakness  ;  "  "  extreme  faintness ; " 
"full  of  pain;"  "a  cold  sweat  all  night;" 
"coughing  and  spitting  blood;"  "violent 
fever."  Living  as  he  did  alone  in  a  mere 
hut,  without  nurse  or  physician,  with  but  few 
of  the  necessaries  and  none  of  the  comforts  of 
life,  the  only  wonder  is  that  his  brief  mis- 
sionary  career   was   not   yet   briefer. 

Nor  should  the  character  of  the  Delawares 
be  forgotten.  Brainerd's  heart  was  drawn  out 
to  them,  yet  he  says :  "  They  are  in  general 
unspeakably  indolent  and  slothful.  ...  I  am 
obliged  to  instruct  them  in,  as  well  as  press 
them  to,  the  performance  of  their  work,  and 
take  the  oversight  of  all  their  secular  business. 
They  have  little  or  no  ambition  or  resolution. 
Not  one  in  a  thousand  of  them  has  the  spirit 
of  a  man."  Their  hamlets  were  sparsely  peo- 
pled, there  being  usually  not  more  than  two  or 


134  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

three  families  in  a  place,  and  these  small  settle- 
ments were  for  the  most  part  miles  away  from 
his  headquarters.  The  roving  disposition,  which 
was  general,  did  not,  of  course,  favor  religious 
instruction  and  influence.  They  became  vehe- 
mently prejudiced  —  and  not  without  reason  — 
against  those  bearing  the  Christian  name.  Some 
of  the  European  settlers  in  their  neighborhood 
much  preferred  to  have  the  Indians  remain 
heathens,  as  they  would  then  be  their  more 
easy  prey ;  otherwise,  "  the  hope  of  their  gain 
was  gone."  They  represented  Brainerd  as  a 
knave,  as  a  papist  who  had  come  to  incite 
them  to  insurrection  against  the  English,  or 
else  to  sell  them  as  slaves.  Naturally  suspi- 
cious, the  Indians  had  their  fears  thus  played 
upon  effectually.  If  our  missionary  had  been 
master  of  the  language  he  would  have  been  in 
a  far  more  favorable  position  to  meet  insinua- 
tions, to  rebut  charges,  and  to  communicate 
religious  instruction.  But  in  the  vernacular 
there  was  no  Bible,  no  literature,  and  he  had 
no  adequate  helps  whatever. 

It  would  be  superfluous  to  say  that  such  a 
man,  whose  desire  was,  "O  that  I  could  be 
'  a  flame  of  fire  in  the  service  of  my  God!"  was 
indefatigable  in  labor.  To  preach  and  cate- 
chise, to  give  private  instruction,  to  take  care 
of  their  secular  affairs  as  if  they  were  so  many 
children,  to   ride   about   frequently   in   order   to 


DAVID   BRAINERD.  136 

secure  means  for   the  support  of  the  school,  to 

decide   petty    differences    among    them,   left   no 

time   for   the   study  of  the  Indian   languages. 

And    how    about    the     circumstances    of    his 

ministrations?      In   the   cold   season   he   had   to 

preach    in    their    wigwams,    which    were    filled 

with   smoke    and   intolerable   filth, 

Devotedness. 

which  would  cause  him  violent 
sick  headaches.  Mothers  would  take  no  pains 
to  quiet  their  crying  children.  Some  in  the 
little  audience  would  be  whittling  sticks,  some 
playing  with  the  dogs,  and  some  mocking  at 
divine  things. 

It  should   be   added   that  as  occasion  seemed 
to  require   he  employed   his  own   private  means 
judiciously   in   aid   of  the  Indians.      His  salary 
was  forty  pounds  (two  hundred  dollars)  a  year. 
In   less   than   three   years  he  spent  fifteen   hun- 
dred  dollars    of    his   own   means,   additional   to 
the   salary,  for  mission   purposes.      A   favorable 
beginning,   however,  in   the   line   of    civilization 
was  made.      He   induced   a  portion  of  the  tribe ; 
—  as  previously  indicated  —  to   settle  in  a  more 
compact  manner   and   to   undertake    agriculture' 
with  some   degree  of  system ;   but   the  plowing,  \ 
planting,    fence-building,    and    other    operations  | 
Brainerd   had   to   oversee   himself.  / 

Before  the  close  of  his  labor  at  Crossweek- 
snng  a  schoolmaster  came  upon  the  ground, 
who,  after   five   months,  testified   that   the   chil- 


136  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

dren  —  thirty  or  more — learned  with  surprising 
readiness ;  that  he  had  never  had  an  English 
school  comparable  to  this,  some  of  the  pupils 
being  able  within  the  time  named  to  read  the 
English  Psalter  or  New  Testament  without 
pausing  to  spell  the  words.  Twice  a  week 
they  were  instructed  in  the  Assembly's  Cate- 
chism, and  in  the  course  of  the  first  four 
months  some  of  them  were  able  to  repeat  con- 
siderably more  than  half  of  it  by  heart. 

Keeping  in  mind  the  environment  by  which 
he  was  hampered,  what  success  in  that  chief 
object  which  he  had  in  view  could  this  invalid 
expect  amidst  those  savages  during  his  short 
period  of  activity?  No  pause  need  be  made 
to  speak  of  labor,  occasional  and  incidental, 
among  the  Dutch,  Germans,  and  Irish,  which 
was  a  blessing  to  those  sheep  without  a  shep- 
herd.      Brainerd    as    a    missionary 

Success.  1         T-.   1  1 

to  the  Delawares  gave  heart  and 
strength  unreservedly  to  them.  His  great  aim, 
his  burning  desire,  was  to  save  souls.  Would 
it  have  been  strange  or  unprecedented  if  no 
appreciable  religious  impression  had  been  made? 
Usually  the  more  degraded  a  people  are  the 
less  susceptible  they  are  to  a  sense  of  guilt. 
Acute  conviction  of  sin,  vivid  joy  upon  a  dis- 
covery of  saving  grace  through  Christ  Jesus, 
and  lively  religious  emotions  in  general  are 
found   for    the   most   part   only   where   there   is 


DAVID   BRAINERD.  137 

some  advance  in  civilization  and  where  the 
great  truths  of  Christianity  have  for  a  longer 
time  been  inculcated.  Brainerd  held  a  careful 
pen.  Before  full  three  months  after  his  arrival 
at  the  forks  of  the  Delaware  were  passed  he 
noticed  appearances  of  religious  concern  among 
the  Indians.  Before  five  months  had  gone  by 
several  came  of  their  own  accord  to  talk  about 
their  souls'  concerns ;  some,  with  tears,  inquired 
"what  they  should  do  to  be  saved."  Before 
the  seven  months  of  that  year  (1744)  were 
completed  his  interpreter,  as  well  as  others, 
was  under  conviction  of  sin.  One  old  man, 
apparently  a  hundred  years  of  age,  wept  and 
seemed  deeply  convinced  of  the  importance  of 
what  he  had  heard. 

We  now  follow  him  to  Crossweeksung.  We 
bear  in  mind  that  the  Delawares  are  still  sav- 
ages, improvident,  heedless  of  the  future,  stolid, 
apathetic.  Tenderness  and  humane  emotions 
are  little  known  among  them.  "But,"  says 
Brainerd,    "the   impressions    made 

upon  their  hearts  appeared  chieflv     x-    eviva 

^  -"^^  ''        Experiences, 

by    the    extraordinary    earnestness 

of    their   attention   and   their    heavy   sighs   and 

tears."      On   one   occasion   there  were  only  two 

persons  with  dry  eyes.     Conscience  was  aroused, 

and   conviction   of   sin   took   hold  of  them.     A 

"woman  appeared  in  great  distress  for  her  soul. 

She  was  brought  to  such  agony  in  seeking  after 


138  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

Christ  that  the  sweat  ran  off  her  face  for  a  con- 
siderable time  together  (although  the  evening 
was  very  cold),  and  her  bitter  cries  were  the 
most  affecting  indications  of  her  heart." '  All 
classes  were  moved.  No  wonder  the  missionary 
should  remark,  "It  was  very  affecting  to  see 
the  poor  Indians,  who  the  other  day  were  hal- 
looing and  yelling  in  their  idolatrous  feasts  and 
drunken  frolics,  now  crying  to  God  with  such 
importunity  for  an  interest  in  his  dear  Son." 

May  not  this  have  been  mere  animal  excite- 
ment, the  contagion  of  superficial,  ignorant 
alarm?  The  constant  aim  of  our  missionary 
was  not  to  appeal  to  the  feelings  but  to  the 
understanding,  and  to  present  only  sober,  essen- 
tial truth.  He  remarks :  "  Hence  their  concern 
in  general  was  most  rational  and  just.  Those 
who  had  been  awakened  any  considerable  time 
complained  more  especially  of  their  hearts.'''' 
Take  a  specimen :  A  woman  "  had  been  angry 
with  her  child  the  evening  before,  and  was  now 
exercised  with  fears  lest  her  anger  had  been 
inordinate  and  sinful,  which  so  grieved  her 
that  she  waked  and  began  to  sob  before  day- 
light and  continued  weeping  for  several  hours 
together."  It  should  be  kept  in  mind  that 
Brainerd  was  a  man  of  discriminating  judg- 
ment in  regard   to   spiritual  exercises;   that   he 

» Note  24. 


DAVID   BRAINERD.  139 

knowingly  gave  no  encouragement  to  nervous 
agitations ;  that  he  discountenanced  mere  rhap- 
sodic and  other  enthusiastic  manifestations. 

What  now  were  some  of  the  tokens  confirm- 
atory of  the  statement  above?  Prayerfulness  is 
one.  When  leaving  them,  for  example,  on  a 
journey  to  the  Susquehanna,  before  sunset  they 
j  began  and  continued  praying  till  near  break  of 
''  day,  never  mistrusting  till  they  went  out  and 
saw  the  morning  star  at  a  considerable  height 
that  it   was  later   than   bedtime. 

T-,         ^       e        1  r  1  J  •  Genuine  Work. 

Dread  oi  seli-deception  was  an- 
other token.  Was  it  said  in  the  early  days 
of  our  era,  "Behold  how  these  Christians  love 
one  another?"  That  might  well  have  been  said 
at  Crossweeksung.  "  I  know  of  no  assembl}' 
of  Christians,"  writes  Brainerd,  "where  there 
seems  to  be  so  much  of  the  presence  of  God, 
where  brotherly  love  so  much  prevails,  and 
where  I  should  take  so  much  delight  in  the 
public  worship  of  God  in  general  as  in  my 
own  congregation,  although  not  more  than 
nine  months  ago  under  the  power  of  pagan 
darkness   and   superstition." 

The  main  point  here  is.  What  was  actually 
accomplished  by  this  young  consumptive  mis- 
sionary, single-handed  and  in  so  short  a  term 
of  service  ?  Neither  he  nor  our  holy  religion 
was  responsible  for  a  later  sad  history  of 
aboriginal    tribes,    nor    do    we    need    to    tarry 


140  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

here  in  order  to  descant  upon  the  cupidity 
and  manifold  iniquity  of  white  men.  Testi- 
monials from  other  sources  were  hardly  re- 
quired ;  yet  ministers  —  William  Tennent,  of 
Freehold,  one  of  them  —  and  church  officers 
living  comparatively  near  Brainerd's  field  of 
operations,  and  having  personal  acquaintance 
therewith,  volunteered  warm  attestations  to  the 
remarkable  character  of  the  results.  One  of 
them  wrote,  "I  am  for  my  part  fully  per- 
suaded that  this  glorious  work  is  true  and 
genuine,  while  with  satisfaction  I  behold  sev- 
eral of  these  Indians,  discovering  all  the  symp- 
toms of  inward  holiness  in  their  lives  and  con- 
versation." The  year  after  Brainerd's  decease 
(1748)  a  competent  witness  visiting  Bethel, 
the  Indian  settlement  at  Cranberry,  writes: 
"The  state  and  circumstances  of  the  Indians, 
spiritual  and  temporal,  much  exceed  what 
I  expected.  Notwithstanding  my  expectations 
were  very  much  raised  from  Mr.  David  Brai- 
nerd's journal  and  from  particular  information 
from  him,  yet  I  must  confess  that  in  many 
respects  they  are  not  equal  to  that  which 
now  appears  to  me  to  be  true  concerning 
the  glorious  work  of  divine  grace  among  the 
Indians." ' 

After  all  is  it  to  be  supposed  that  a  tribe  so 


'  Rev.  Job  Strong :  Life  of  John  Brainerd,  144. 


DAVID  BRAINERD.  141 

rude,  so  sunk  in  superstition,  so  enslaved  by 
traditions  and  a  dark  heredity,  can  in  a  short 
time  become  the  subjects  of  anything  more 
than  transient  impressions?  Did  a  radical 
change  of  character  and  life  result?  Trans- 
formation came  and  was  indeed  sudden.  Brai- 
nerd  says,  "  The  pagans  who  were  awakened 
seemed  at  once  to  put  off  their  savage  rough- 
ness and  pagan  manners,  and  became  sociable, 
orderly,  and  humane  in  their 
carriage."     "This  day   (July  19,  a  ions. 

1746)  makes  up  a  complete  year  from  the 
first  time  of  my  preaching  to  these  Indians 
in  New  Jersey.  What  amazing  things  has 
God  wrought  in  this  space  of  time  for  this 
poor  people !  What  a  surprising  change  ap- 
pears in  their  tempers  and  behavior !  How 
are  morose  and  savage  pagans  in  this  short 
period  transformed  into  agreeable,  affectionate, 
and  humble  Christians,  and  their  drunken  and 
pagan  bowlings  turned  into  devout  and  fervent 
praises  to  God?" 

One  incident  reminds  us  of  what  occurred 
at  Ephesus,  "Many  of  them  also  which  used 
curious  arts  brought  their  books  together  and 
burned  them  before  all  men."  Brainerd  re- 
cords :  "  It  was  likewise  remarkable  that  this 
day  (August  25,  1745)  an  old  Indian,  who  had 
all  his  days  been  an  idolater,  was  brought  to 
give   up   his   rattles  —  which  they  use  for  music 


142  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

in  their  idolatrous  feasts  and  dances  —  to  the 
other  Indians,  who  quickly  destroyed  them. 
This  was  done  without  any  attempt  of  mine 
in  the  affair."  Did  the  apostles  on  their 
evangelistic  tours  take  with  them  young  con- 
verts as  assistants?  Our  missionary's  earlier 
efforts  in  Pennsylvania  having  been  but  par- 
tially successful,  at  a  later  date  (February  16, 
1746)  he  took  with  him  half  a  dozen  from 
Crossweeksung,  who   did   effective   service.' 

What  were  the  numerical  results  of  Brai- 
nerd's  labor?  It  will  be  recollected  that  the 
Delawares,  so  far  as  accessible  by  him,  were 
not  numerous.  Toward  the  close  of  his  first 
year  among  them  he  had  baptized  thirty-eight 
adults;  but  he  baptized  no  adults  except  such 
as  appeared  to  have  a  work  of  grace  wrought 
in  their  hearts.  At  one  time  he  speaks  of 
eighty  as  either  inquirers  or  apparently  con- 
verted. It  was  probably  the  progress  of 
disease  and  consequent  bodily  weakness  that 
prevented  a  closing  statistical  review  of  labor 
among   the   Delawares. 

A  question  of  no  small  historical  and  prac- 
tical importance  here  presents  itself:  What 
were  Brainerd's  chief  methods?  Two  leading 
features  are  obvious.  The  first  is  the  evan- 
gelical truths  which  he   inculcated.     We   listen 

'  Note  26. 


DAVID   BEAINERD.  143 

once  more :  "  I  have  frequently  been  enabled 
to  represent  the  divine  glory,  the  infinite  pre- 
ciousness,  and  transcendent  loveliness  of  the 
great  Redeemer,  the  suitableness  of  his  person 
and  purchase  to  supply  the  wants  and  answer 
the  utmost  desires  of  immortal  souls ;  to  open 
the  infinite  riches  of  his  grace  and  the  wonder- 
ful encouragement  proposed  in  the  gospel  to 
unworthy,  helpless  sinners;  to  call,  «  ^,  j 
invite,  and  beseech  them  to  come 
and  give  up  themselves  to  him  and  be  recon- 
ciled to  God  through  him ;  to  expostulate  with 
them  respecting  their  neglect  of  one  so  infi- 
nitely lovely  and  freely  offered;  and  this  in 
such  a  manner,  with  such  freedom,  pertinency, 
pathos,  and  application  to  the  conscience  as 
I  am  sure  I  never  could  have  made  myself 
master  of  by  the  most  assiduous  application 
of  mind."  "God  was  pleased  to  give  these 
divine  truths  such  a  powerful  influence  upon 
the  minds  of  these  people,  and  so  to  bless 
them  for  the  effectual  awakening  of  numbers 
of  them,  that  their  lives  were  quickly  reformed, 
without  my  insisting  upon  the  precepts  of  mo- 
rality and  spending  time  in  repeated  harangues 
upon  external  duties." 

Such  were  the  Scripture  truths  enforced 
by  Brainerd  —  the  momentous  facts  of  prime 
moment  to  every  man,  savage  and  civilized 
alike  —  the   preaching   of   which   has   ever  been 


144  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

mighty  to  the  pulling  down  of  strongholds  and 

stirring  those  depths  of  the  soul  which  need  to 

be  stirred.      Like   the    apostles  he  did  not  wait 

for   the  slow  processes  of  school  education,  but 

addressed    himself    first    of    all    and   mainly   to 

adults. 

The  other  chief  element  of  Brainerd's  power 

as   a   missionary   was    his   prayerfulness.      That 

habit  characterized  him  from  the  earliest  period 

of    his    religious     life.      Before     entering    upon 

,  .  work  among  the  Indians  his  iour- 

Prayerfulness.  .  "* 

nal    contains   memoranda  such  as 

these :  "  God  enabled  me  so  to  agonize  in 
prayer  that  I  was  quite  wet  with  perspiration, 
though  in  the  shade  and  the  cool  wind.  My 
soul  was  drawn  out  very  much  from  the  world 
for  multitudes  of  souls." '  Once  entered  upon 
labor  in  behalf  of  the  red  men  he  says :  "  My 
great  concern  was  for  the  conversion  of  the 
heathen  to  God,  and  the  Lord  helped  me  to 
speak  for  them."  "  Praying  incessantly  every 
moment  with  sweet  fervency."  "I  feel  as  if 
my  all  was  lost  and  I  was  undone  for  this 
world  if  the  poor  heathen  may  not  be  con- 
verted." "  In  prayer  I  was  exceedingly  en- 
larged." "Spent  a  great  part  of  the  day 
(December  19,  1744)  in  prayer  to  God  for  the 
outpouring   of  his   Spirit    on   my   poor   people." 

» Note  26. 


DAVID  BEAINERD.  145 

In  journeying  from  place  to  place,  before  preach- 
ing and  after  preaching,  and  even  in  his  dreams 
supplication  for  individuals  and  for  the  people 
at  large  was  the  business  of  his  heart.  As  a 
prince  he  had  power  with  God  and  with  men. 
Such  a  wrestler  could  not  but  prevail.  His 
faith  removed  mountains.  The  student  or  mis- 
sionary who  receives  no  impulse  to  prayer,  to 
self-scrutiny,  to  heartiest  consecration,  from  a 
perusal  of  Brainerd's  memoir  must  either  have 
made  very  rare  attainments  in  the  divine  life 
or  else  have  very  languid  aspirations.  Given 
such  preaching  and  praying  by  all  ministers 
and  missionaries,  how  long  before  the  world 
would   be    converted  ? 

Owing  to  the  progress  of  pulmonary  con- 
sumption he  was  compelled  to  leave  the  work 
in  1747.  Deducting  the  time  occupied  by  two 
short  visits  to  New  England,  by  other  short 
absences,  and  the  weeks  during  which  he  was 
laid  aside  owing  to  sickness  —  at  one  time  con- 
fined   nearly    four    months  —  there 

,  ,1  ,  ,      Brief  Period. 

remain    less    than    two    years    and 

a  half  for  actual  labor '~araong'  the  Delawares. 
Enough  is  known  to  authorize  the  statement 
that  since  apostolic  days  there  has  probably 
not  been  a  case  in  which,  all  things  consid- 
ered, such  religious  results  have  attended  the 
brief  labors  of  a  solitary  missionary  among 
pagan   men   of    the   woods.      It   was   nearly  six 


146  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

years  after  his  arrival  in  Burmah  before  Judson 
baptized  a  convert;  seven  years  before  Mora- 
vians rejoiced  over  a  converted  Greenlander; 
fifteen  years  before  the  pioneer  band — thirty  in 
number  —  of  the  London  society's  mission  to 
the  South  Seas  were  cheered  by  a  conversion 
on  Tahiti;  and  a  quarter  of  a  century  before 
Rhenish  missionaries  among  the  Hereroes  of 
South  Western  Africa  began  to  gather  fruit 
from   their   sowing. 

During  Brainerd's  four  years  of  missionary 
life  he  had  no  comfortable  home.  At  different 
places  of  sojourn  he  successively  built  for  him- 
self a  cabin,  in  each  instance  rude  and  most 
scantily  furnished.  Suitable  food,  medicine, 
and  nursing  were  rare.  Great  exposures  were 
frequent;  hardships  constant;  debility  and  sick- 
ness inevitable.     Hectic  fever,  night  sweats,  and 

hemorrhages   from    the   lunes   were 
Last  Days.  ^        f  „^ 

a   natural    consequence,     l^ew   men 

so  reduced  in  bodily  strength  would  have  re- 
mained as  long  at  their  post.  March  20,  1747, 
occurred  his  last  interview  with  the  Delawares, 
though  not  at  the  time  supposed  by  him  to  be 
such.  After  the  expiration  of  nearly  a  month 
from  that  date  he  left  New  Jersey;  and,  hop- 
ing still  for  improved  health,  proceeded  by  slow 
stages  to  New  England,  and  after  a  month's 
time  arrived  at  Northampton.  One  object  was 
to  consult   a   physician   in   that  place.      A  part 


DAVID   BRAINERD.  147 

of  June  and  July  was  spent  in  Boston.  Re- 
turning to  Northampton  and  to  the  house  of 
President  Edwards,  he  continued  to  suffer  and 
to  fail.  The  longed-for  departure  came  Octo- 
ber 9,  1747.  Anticipating  the  event,  he  often 
called   it  "that   glorious   day!" 

In  our  day  a  distinguished  French  artist '  at 
twenty-nine  was  decorated  with  the  badge  of 
the  Legion  of  Honor ;  a  century  before  that 
David  Brain erd  at  the  same  age,^  amidst  ten 
thousand  times  ten  thousand  and  thousands  of 
thousands,  received  the  crown  of  glory  that 
fadeth   not   away. 


'  Paul  Gustave  Dore. 
'^  Note  27. 


vn 

DANISH   MISSIONS. 


Denmark,  though  territorially  so  small,  has 
eminence  in  four  things.  Her  population  is 
said  to  be  better  supplied  with  Bibles  than 
that  of  any  other  country ;  her  government 
was  the  first  in  Europe  to  furnish  education 
for  the  whole  people,  and  is  today  expending 
more  per  capita  for  that  purpose  than  any 
other  nation  in  the  old  world ;  she  was  the 
first  to  proscribe  the  slave  trade ;  and  the  first 
on  the  Continent,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  to 
send  missionaries  to  the  heathen.  It  was,  how- 
ever, in  Germany  that  the  revived  evangelical 
spirit  two  hundred  years  ago  took  its  rise,  and 
out  of  that  revival  arose  foreign  missions.  The 
first  missionaries  and  a  large  majority  of  their 
successors  in  the  early  Danish  movement  were 
from  Germany ;  funds  for  their  support  to  no 
inconsiderable  amount  were  supplied  from  the 
same  source,  while  the  really  directing  mind 
of    that    enterprise    was    also    in    Germany.      It 


DANISH    inSSIONS.  149 

might  therefore  be  suitably  denominated  Ger- 
mano-Danish. 

Our  attention  may  well  be  drawn  to  that 
little  kingdom  by  an  ancestral  interest.  Not 
more  truly  is  England  our  mother  country 
than  Denmark  is  a  mother  country  of  the 
English.  Thence  came  the  language,  the  name, 
and  the  invading  race  —  Angles  —  with  whom, 
in  the  fifth  century,  begins  the  history  of  the 
English  people  —  English  as  distinguished  from 
antecedent  British.  With  the  bold  Angles  — 
a  name  still  found  in  the  duchy  of  Holstein 
—  was  early  associated   a  neigh- 

1       .  1        1  •     1       1     •  Anglo-Saxons, 

boring    people,    kindred   in    race 

and  speech,  and  hence  arose  the  designation 
Anglo-Saxons.  In  that  jirimeval  homestead, 
that  England  older  than  Old  England,  is  an 
early  historic  fountain  of  the  blood  now  cours- 
ing through  our  veins.  Present  Anglo-Saxon 
enterprise,  whether  maritime  or  evangelistic, 
had  its  counterpart  at  that  period  when  the 
Northmen  became  a  terror  in  nearly  all  the 
waters  of  Europe,  establishing  a  place  for  them- 
selves in  France,  plundering  Paris,  and  giving 
their  name  to  Normandy;  pushing  their  way 
up  the  Guadalquivir;  measuring  prowess  with 
the  Moors  of  Spain ;  sacking  Seville  ;  founding 
a  new  kingdom  in  Naples;  and  assisting  in  the 
capture  of  Sidon.  They  were  "  the  Arabs  of 
the  deep."     Such  was   the   terror   inspired   gen- 


150  PROTESTANT    MISSIONS. 

erally  by  the  Vikings  during  this  long  preda- 
tory period  that  in  the  ninth  century  these 
words  were  added  to  the  Litany,  "  From  the 
rage  of  the  Northmen,  good  Lord,  deliver  us  ! " ' 
Early  in  the  eleventh  century  the  Danes,  hav- 
ing conquered  a  part  of  Scotland  and  the 
whole  of  England,  set  their  own  king  (Ca- 
nute) on  the  throne,  and  he  became  the  most 
powerful  monarch  of  his  time.  At  the  close  of 
the  fourteenth  century  Denmark  ranked  among 
the  leading  powers  of  Europe  —  Margaret,  the 
Semiramis  of  the  North,  having  by  her  courage 
and  address  united  the  three  crowns  of  Den- 
mark, Sweden,  and  Norway. 

Frederick  IV,  whose  name  stands  connected 
with  the  earliest  Protestant  mission  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  came  to  the  throne  in  1699. 
He  found  the  treasury  exhausted,  commerce 
crippled,  and  the  kingdom  labor- 
ing under  heavy  difficulties.  His 
struggle  with  Charles  XH  of  Sweden,  that 
thunderbolt  of  war,  only  increased  embarrass- 
ments. But  the  Spirit  of  God  was  at  work 
preparing  the  way  for  a  movement  that  should 
mark  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  Protestantism. 
Already  while  crown  prince  the  king  had  re- 
flected on  the  condition  of  the  heathen,  and 
since  coming  to  the  throne  he  had  consulted 
his   spiritual    adviser.   Dr.   Jespersen,  in   regard 

*  A  furore  Normannorum  libera  nos,  0  Domine. 


DANISH    MISSIONS.  161 

to  sending  Christian  laborers  among  his  Finnish 
subjects  in  Lapland.  "  Kings  shall  be  thy  nurs- 
ing fathers "  was  predicted  of  old ;  and  today 
the  saying  may  be  heard  in  Denmark  when 
anything  noble  or  beautiful  takes  place,  "  This 
proceeds  from  the  king." 

But  how  came  Frederick's  thoughts  to  move 
in  the  direction  of  India  ?  The  wealth  flowing 
to  other  nations  of  Europe  from  the  East  India 
trade  had,  a  century  before,  stimulated  the 
enterprise  of  Denmark  also,  and  in  spite  of 
numerous  failures  she  made  repeated  attempts 
to  find  a  northwest  passage  to  Eastern  Asia. 
At  length  the  domination  of  Roman  Catholic 
powers,  especially  Portugal,  began  to  wane.' 
The  Danes,  as  well  as  the  Dutch,  relinquishing 
the  long  cherished  idea  of  a  highway  to  In- 
dia through  Behring  Strait,  and  accepting  the 
route  by  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  acquired 
colonial  possessions  in  the  East.  In  the  year 
1621  Denmark  purchased  from  the  Rajah  of 
Tanjore  a  permanent  footing  on  the  Coroman- 
del  Coast,  and  the  mind  of  any  one  on  the 
throne  might  well  be  impressed  with  a  sense 
of  obligation  to  his  pagan  subjects. 

The  immediate  occasion  of  this  new  move- 
ment was  a  widow's  distress.  One  evening  in 
the  month  of  March,  1705,  Frederick  sits  read- 


'  Alex  J.  D.  D'Orsey  :  Portuguese  Discoveries,  Dependencies,  and 
Missions  in  Asia  and  Africa.    London,  1893. 


162  PROTESTANT    MISSIONS. 

ing  petitions  from  his  people.  Among  them  is 
one  from  a  widow  whose  husband  and  eldest 
son,  belonging  to  the  garrison  at  Tranquebar, 
have  been  murdered  by  the  natives.  She  asks 
aid  for  herself  and  her  five  remaining  children. 
The  king  affords  help ;  but  immediately  sends 
for  his  chaplain,  Dr.  Liitkens,  whom 
'^*^'"'  he  had  called  the  j^ear  before  from 
Berlin,  to  consult  with  him  about  a  mission  to 
India.  The  good  man  enters  warmly  into  the 
plan,  and,  though  in  a  time  of  war,  he  is  com- 
missioned to  look  out  for  candidates.  They 
are  not,  however,  to  be  found  in  Denmark.' 
The  new  spiritual  life,  reproachfully  termed 
"  Pietism,"  having  Halle  for  its  center,  was  felt 
but  slightly  in  this  neighboring  kingdom ;  and 
Frederick  authorized  his  court  preacher,  who 
had  been  his  religious  instructor  in  youth,  to 
seek  missionaries  elsewhere.  Dr.  Liitkens'  ac- 
quaintance in  Germany  led  to  a  correspondence 
which  brought  to  light  two  young  graduates 
from  Halle  —  Henry  Pliitschau  and 

,..    ."^^  .         Bartholomew  Ziegenbalg.    In  1811 
Missionaries.  °  ^ 

the  American  Board  sent  to  Eng- 
land for  pecuniary  cooperation ;  a  century  ear- 
lier Denmark  sent  to  Germany  for  men. 

The  parents  of  Ziegenbalg  died  when  he  was 
young.  One  incident  of  his  mother's  last  days 
he    could    never   forget.      Gathering   the  family 

'Note  29. 


DANISH    MISSIONS.  153 

round  her  bed  she  said,  "  Dear  children,  I  have 
a  great  treasure  for  you  —  a  very  great  treas- 
ure have  I  collected  for  you."  The  eldest 
daughter  asked  where  it  was.  "Seek  it  in 
the  Bible,  my  dear  children,"  answered  the  dy- 
ing woman ;  "  there  you  will  find  it.  I  have 
watered  every  page  with  my  tears."  The  first 
Protestant  mission  to  India  originated  in  the 
heart  of  a  praying  mother.  "  There  is  a  river 
the  streams  whereof  shall  make  glad  the  city 
of  God."  The  death  of  Ziegenbalg's  father 
was  also  attended  by  noteworthy  circumstances. 
A  fire  broke  out  in  the  place  of  his  residence 
—  Pulsnitz,  a  town  sixteen  miles  northwest 
from  Dresden  —  and  reached  the  house  where 
he  lay  unable  to  move.  In  their  agitation 
friends  could  think  of  no  way  to  remove  the 
helpless  man  except  by  placing  him  in  the 
cofiin  which  for  some  time  had  been  in  readi- 
ness, and  being  thus  carried  out  to  the  market 
place  he  died  there. 

In  childhood  Ziegenbalg  exhibited  unusual 
seriousness.  As  a  youth  he  maintained  habits 
of  devotion  which  made  him  the  target  of 
ridicule  for  his  schoolmates.  Visiting  various 
universities  he  nowhere  found  students  like- 
minded  with  himself  nor  teachers  so  faithful 
as  at  Halle.  From  1694  to  1730  that  was  the 
leading  German  university,  and  at  the  time  of 
Ziegenbalg's    stay    there    it    was    the    focus    of 


154  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

a  spiritual  revival.  In  conversation  one  day 
Francke  said  to  him  regarding  the  heathen  of 
India,  "  If  one  can  truly  lead  a  soul  to  God 
from  amongst  that  people  it  is  as  much  as 
winning  a  hundred  in  Europe,  for  these  latter 
have  each  day  means  and  opportunities  suffi- 
cient for  their  conversion,  while  the  former 
are  entirely  without  them."  That  remark  made 
a  lasting  impression  upon  him.  He  and  a 
friend  of  his,  Von  der  Linde,  entered  into  a 
covenant,  as  follows :  "  We  will  seek  nothing 
else  in  the  world  but  the  glory  of  God's  name, 
the  spread  of  God's  kingdom,  the  propagation 
of  divine  truth,  the  salvation  of  our  neighbor, 
and  the  constant  sanctification  of  our  own 
souls,  wherever  we  may  be  and  whatever  of 
cross-bearing  and  suffering  it  may  occasion  us." 
Study  was  much  interrupted  by  ill  health, 
for  he  suffered  from  bodily  weakness ;  yet  he 
and  Pliitschau,  his  friend  at  the  university, 
had  become  known  by  their  acquirements,  their 
piety,  and  their  traits  of  character  as  qualified 
for  such  an  undertaking  in  the  distant  East. 
It  is  one  of  the  noticeable  coincidences,  often 
recurring  in  the  history  of  missions,  that  Pro- 
fessor Francke,  the  founder  of  the  Orphan 
House  at  Halle,  had  just  been  conferring  with 
Ziegenbalg  in  regard  to  personal  service  among 
the  heathen  when  the  unlooked-for  inquiry 
came   from    Copenhagen. 


DANISH   MISSIONS.  155 

To  become  pioneers  at  that  time  was  a  very 
different  thing  from  what  it  is  now  to  make 
an  offer  of  foreign  service.  No  healthful  gen- 
eral sentiment  on  the  subject  existed.  The 
charge  of  presumption  had  to  be  met,  for 
not   till  years  after  Ziegenbalg's   death   did  the 

labors  of  Eliot   and   the   May  hews 

1  1  •      /^  -nr  The  Period. 

become  known  in  (rermany.'  More 
trying  still,  the  young  men  were  pronounced 
enthusiasts  and  fools.  But  their  purpose  was 
not  to  be  shaken.  Commended  to  the  king 
and  to  his  worthy  chaplain  the  two  students 
went  to  Denmark,  were  ordained,  and  sailed 
(November  29,  1705)  for  the  East  Indies.  The 
enterprise  might  be  further  denominated  Dano- 
Hallensian. 

It  should  not  be  imagined  that  at  the  capital 
any  general  interest  was  felt  in  this  movement. 
/Nor  should  too  favorable  an  inference  be  drawn 
I  regarding  the  religious  character  of  Frederick  IV. 
The  fact  that  Cyrus  liberated  the  chosen  people 
did  not  prove  him  to  be  a  worshiper  of  the  true 
God.  Pope  Gregory  the  Great,  who  bought 
Anglo-Saxon  youths  at  the  slave  market  to  edu- 
cate them  as  missionaries  for  Britain,  and  who 
sent  zealous  Augustine  on  the  same  errand,  was 
not  altogether  a  model  of  piety.  Frederick, 
while   not   upon   so   low  a  level  as  the  average 


*  Professor  Nitzsch,  in  Piper's  Zeugen  der  Warheit,  I,  p.  613. 


156  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

of  contemporary  monarchs,  is  not  reported  to 
have  been  a  faultless  man.'  Nor  was  the  sen- 
timent of  Copenhagen  very  deeply  religious. 
No  crowded  audiences  gave  the  young  men 
welcome  or  farewell.  With  few  exceptions 
people  looked  upon  the  missionaries  as  enthusi- 
asts. The  thought  of  effort  to  save  others,  and 
especially  the  heathen,  was  remote  from  the 
general  mind.  Self-seeking  ruled  the  day.  In 
Heligoland,  not  far  from  the  track  of  our  mis- 
sionaries' outward  voyage,  the  inhabitants  sub- 
sisted in  part  by  wrecking,  and  their  pastor, 
even  down  to  the  present  century,  prayed  every 
Sabbath  morning  for  a  fresh  supply  of  ship- 
wrecks.* On  the  nineteenth  of  July,  1706,  the 
two  missionaries  reached  their  destined  haven, 
after  a  voyage  of  two  hundred  and  twenty- 
three  days,  including  a  short  stop  at  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope. 

Tranquebar,  at  that  time  a  Danish  possession, 
on  the  Coromandel  Coast,  was  the  merest  foot- 
hold. It  had  an  area  of  only  fifteen  square 
miles,  with  a  fortified  seaport  and 
about  twenty  smaller  towns  or  vil- 
lages within  the  district.  The  population  was 
not  far  from  fifteen  thousand.  One  hundred 
and   forty    miles   southwest  from   Madras,  it  is 


*  Schlosser :    History    of  the   Eighteenth    Century.     Translated 
London,  1845. 

'  Hurst's  Life  and  Literature  in  the  Fatherland,  p.  392. 


DANISH  ]\nSSIONS.  157 

situated  at  the  mouth  of  one  branch  of  the 
Cavery,  that  sacred  stream  which  traverses  My- 
sore, and  then,  visiting  the  Carnatic,  imparts 
productiveness  there  —  the  very  Nile  of  the 
peninsula.  Its  delta  is  unsurpassed  in  fer- 
tility  b}^   any    other   on   the   globe. 

This  is  India,  and  yet  of  that  vast  territory 
only  a  fraction.  Survey  that  enormous  triangle, 
nearly  equilateral,  each  side  not  far  short  of 
two  thousand  miles  —  an  area  equal  to  Europe; 
equal  t6~'the  United  States  east  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  (The  southern  apex  (Cape  Comorin) 
is  as  far  from  the  Himalayas  as 
Gibraltar  is  from  Iceland.)  Within 
these  boundaries  are  found  one  in_ey.ery  five  of 
the  entire  present  population  of  our  globe,  one 
country  alone  having  a  larger  number.  The 
Roman  Empire  in  its  widest  extent  never  had 
half  as  many  millions  as  are  here  congregated. 
Politically  India  is  not  a  country,  but  a  con- 
geries of  countries.  You  may  count  consider- 
ably more  than  one  hundred  separate  states,  to 
which  the  imperial  government  of  Great  Britain 
holds  relations  of  varying  supervision.  Racial 
differences  are  numerous,  and  all  grades  of  civ- 
ilization are  found  here.  Would  you  communi- 
cate with  the  people  in  all  their  vernaculars  ? 
Your  polyglot  will  not  fall  short  of  two  hun- 
dred languages,  including  dialects.  Traversing 
India  you  will  find  it  the  land   of  peacocks,  of 


158  PKOTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

elephants,  of  tigers,  of  lions  too ;  hence  such 
titles  as  Singe,  Lion,  and  the  like.  It  is  also 
the  land  of  serpents.  Official  returns  show- 
that  from  fifteen  thousand  to  twenty  thousand 
"^  of  the  inhabitants  are  annually  victims  of  wild 
beasts,  crocodiles,  and  deadly  snakes.  Few  of 
the  more  valuable  productions  of  any  climate 
can  be  named  which  are  not  found  here. 
Wherever  practicable,  rice  is  cultivated — the 
article  which  sustains  a  greater  number  of  hu- 
man beings  than  any  other  plant  and  which 
yields  to  the  acre  the  largest  amount  of  nutri- 
ment. India  is  preeminently  the  land  of  palms, 
that  are  unsurpassed  in  gracefulness  and  beauty. 
Nowhere  else  does  the  banyan  attain  such  di- 
mensions. There  is  one  in  Guzerat  under  the 
canopy  of  which  five  regiments  of  soldiers  may 
find  complete  shelter  from  the  sun's  rays.  The 
circuit  of  its  outer  stems  measures  two  thou- 
sand feet.     Quot  rami,  tot  arhores. 

India  has  immemorially  enriched  the  West. 
To  have  its  carrying  trade  has  always  been  a 
guaranty  of  wealth.  Herodotus,  a  contempo- 
rary of  Nehemiah,  reported  it  as  the  most  opu- 
lent country  in  the  world.  Its  foreign  trade 
in  our  day  is  eighty  odd  million  dollars  a  year 
India  has  long  been  known  as  the  land  of  gold, 
though  it  has  no  mines  of  that  precious  metal. 
Better  than  such,  the  balance  of  trade  has  uni- 
formly been  in  her  favor.     Reputed  riches  have 


DANISH  MISSIONS.  159 

long  tempted  the  trader  and  the  invader.  Fol- 
low up  the  Ganges  through  the  region  of  Hin- 
dustan proper  to  the  great  rocky  barrier  and 
its  Khyber  Pass,  the  northwest  gate  to  India; 
through  that  Alexander  led  his  Macedonian 
troops,  three  hundred  years  before  Christ,  and 
through  that  have  since  poured  not  less  than 
seven  eventful  invasions. 

Over  this  land,  where  the  sun  shineth  in  his 
strength,  there  broods  a  hoary  antiquity.  Be- 
fore the  first  step  toward  the  foundation  of 
Rome  was  taken — indeed  before  Abraham  built 
his  first  altar  in  Canaan  —  the  Rig-  Veda  was  a 
religious  authority  in  India.  While  our  remote 
ancestors  were  still  rude  barbarians  in  Great 
Britain  civilized  men  were  here  mounted  on 
elephants,  were  living  in  palaces,  and  possessed 
of  a  literature  which  Western  scholars  of  today 
are  exploring  with  wonder.  India  has  imme- 
morially  stimulated  the  Occidental  imagination. 
The  fascination  is  not  yet  wholl}''  dissipated. 

At  Tranquebar  —  which  in  size  is  related  to 
the  rest  of  India  as  Denmark  is  to  the  conti- 
nent of  Europe — was  established  the  first  per- 
manent Protestant  mission  on  this  widespread 
mainland.  The  previous  history  of  these  Danes 
in  the  line  of  evangelization  in  the  East  was  not 
particularly  creditable.  During  the  war  waged 
between  them  and  their  neighbors  in  Bengal  it 
was  a   common   practice   to   treat   the  crews  of 


160  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

captured  privateers  as  slaves ;  to  baptize  them, 
and  then  sell  them  at  a  price  varying  from 
five  to  ten  piasters  apiece. 

While  we  accord  to  Denmark  priority  in 
establishing  a  stable  mission  to  the  heathen  of 
continental  India,  we  at  the  same  time  raise 
the  question,  Why  had  she,  a  Christian  power, 
held  this  possession  full  fourscore  years  without 
evangelizing  her  Hindu  subjects?  It  is  small 
relief  to  hear  in  reply  that  England  had,  even 
for  a  century,  been  guilty  of  similar  remissness. 

Ziegenbalg  and  Pliitschau  not  going  out  in 
the  employ  of  a  voluntary  society  nor  of  a 
church  board,  but  with  a  commission  bearing 
the  sign  manual  of  the  king,  it  might  be  ex- 
pected that  their  reception  would  have  at  least 
the  forms  of  courtesy.  So  far  from  that  there 
was    positive    unkindness.      After 

„      ^!  ^  landing   thev  were   left  for  hours 

Experiences.  °  '^ 

under  a  burning  sun  just  outside 
the  gates  and  then  in  the  market  place.  But 
they  had  an  interest  with  the  King  of  kings. 
"  For,  as  we  had  no  human  being,"  say  they, 
"  near  us  of  whom  we  could  ask  advice  as  to 
how  this  or  that  should  be  begun,  we  went 
always  to  our  dear  Father  in  heaven  and  laid 
everything  before  him  in  prayer,  and  we  were 
heard  and  supported  by  him  both  in  advice 
and  in  deed."  They  had  been  students  under 
Francke,  whose  motto  was,   Ora  et  labora. 


DANISH  MISSIONS.  161 

The  climate  is  enervating.  The  Carnatic 
is  the  most  intensely  tropical  part  of  India. 
They  had  come  to  a  region  where  Brahmanism 
was  more  imperious  than  in  almost  any  other 
district  and  Romanism  no  less  unscrupulous 
than  elsewhere,  and  where,  by  their  own  coun- 
trymen, their  work  was  deemed  visionary.  In- 
deed, an  attempt  to  Christianize  the  natives 
was  regarded  as  intrusive.  Even  the  Danish 
chaplain  looked  coldly  upon  these  Christian 
brethren.  The}^  had  few  precedents,  except  in 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  They  addressed 
themselves  as  soon  as  practicable  to  the  study 
of  Tamil,  the  chief  language  of  that  region. 
Dictionary  and  grammar  did  not  exist  nor 
competent  native  teachers.  The  Portuguese  — 
the  first  Europeans  to  secure  possessions  there 
— had  left  their  language,  as  well  as  numerous 
descendants,  behind  them  —  the  one  about  as 
mixed  and  corrupt  as  the  other.  The  Indo- 
Portuguese  dialect  and  the  purer  language  of 
Portuguese  literature  our  missionaries  endeav- 
ored to  master,  that  they  might  make  them- 
selves useful  to  that  portion  of  the  people. 

After  months  of  disappointing  efforts  to  break 
through  the  barriers  that  hedged  in  the  Tamil 
they  took  a  native  school,  with  its  master,  into 
their  house ;  and  they  might  be  seen  sitting 
on  the  ground  among  the  children,  tracing 
with   them   letters,  syllables,  and   words   in   the 


162  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

sand.'  Mastery  of  the  vernacular  should  al- 
ways be  the  first  endeavor  of  a  missionary. 
Ziegenbalg  began  a  dictionary  which,  in  the 
course  of  two  years,  contained  twenty  thousand 
words  and  expressions  —  one  column  in  Tamil 
character,  one  in  Roman  style,  and  a  third  the 
meaning  in  German.  Four  years 
later  it  had  grown  to  forty  thou- 
sand words  and  phrases.  The  vernacular  liter- 
ature of  India  is  chiefly  in  the  form  of  poetry, 
and  Ziegenbalg  constructed  a  poetical  lexicon 
of  seventeen  thousand  words  and  phrases  —  not, 
however,  without  the  aid  of  native  amanuenses. 
Before  the  close  of  the  year  after  their  ar- 
rival they  began  to  catechise  in  Portuguese, 
and  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  year  in 
Tamil.  They  opened  a  school  in  German  for 
the  benefit  of  Europeans  who  understood  that 
language.  Early  in  their  work  this  record  was 
made,  "If  the  Lord  shall  be  pleased  to  grant 
us  the  conversion  of  but  one  soul  among  the 
heathens  we  shall  think  our  voyage  sufficiently 
rewarded  "  —  a  thought  repeatedly  expressed. 
Ten  months  from  the  time  they  set  foot  on 
the  coast  of  India  the  first  baptism  took  place 
(May,  1707),  when  five  slaves,  after  undergoing 
examination,  received  that  ordinance.  Many 
slaves  were  held  by  the  Danes  and  Germans, 
as   it  was   no  unusual  thing  for  the    natives   in 

'Note  30. 


DANISH   MISSIONS.  163 

times  of  great  scarcity  to  sell  themselves  for 
food  and  raiment. 

Better  accommodation  for  worship  was  now 
needed;  the  ship,  however,  which  had  come  in 
brought  neither  funds  nor  an  encouraging  word. 
But  Ziegenbalg  was  a  man  of  strong  faith. 
"We  begin,"  he  writes,  "in  great  poverty,  but 
in  firm  trust  and  confidence  in  God,  to  build 
in  a  great  street  in  the  city."  "Many  mocked 
at  us,  but  some  were  moved  to  pity  and  to 
helping  us."  Two  months  after  laying  the 
corner  stone  they  dedicated  (August  7,  1IQ7) 
their  new  place  of  worship  —  the  earliest  Prot- 
estant chapel  for  natives  on  the  continent  of 
Asia,  as  the  one  erected  more  than  a  century 
later  (1822)  at  Bombay  by  missionaries  of  the 
American  Board  was  the  first  on  the  west 
coast   of  India.' 

The  two  missionaries  now  began  to  preach 
twice  every  Sunday,  both  in  Tamil  and  Portu- 
guese, besides  holding  catechetical  exercises  on 
several  days  of  the  week.^  They  had  also 
opened  schools.  Their  heart  was  in  the  work. 
"  We  cannot  express,"  say  they,  "  what  a  tender 
love  we  bear  toward  our  new  planted  congre- 
gations. Nay,  our  love  is  arrived  to  that  de- 
gree, and   our  forwardness  to  serve  this  nation 


'  Note  31. 

"Pliitschau,   as   well  as    Griindler,  afterwards    preached    in 
Portuguese. 


164  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

is  come  to  that  pitch,  that  we  are  resolved  to 
live  and  die  with  them."  Their  engagement 
was  for  only  five  years. 

At  length,  in  the  midsummer  of  1708,  a  ship 
arrived  from  Denmark,  bringing  only  half  the 
promised  amount  of  funds ;  but  a  part  of  the 
cargo,  in  being  landed,  through  the  careless- 
ness of  -drunken  sailors  went  to  the  bottom 
and  with  it  the  thousand  rix-dollars  of  mission 
money,  never  to  be  recovered.  The  hostile  com- 
mandant and  his  attaches  only  jeered,  saying 
they  had  always  been  right  in  declaring  that 
heaven  was  high  above  the  missionaries'  heads 
and  Copenhagen  very  far  away ! 
Disappoint-     ^j^^    Danish    officials    and    most    of 

ments. 

the  European  residents  at  Tranque- 
bar  had  gone  there  for  worldly  purposes,  and 
the  mere  presence  and  evangelical  faithfulness 
of  such  men  as  these  missionaries  were  a  silent 
rebuke  to  the  ungodly.  The  commandant  and 
the  whole  privy  council  maintained  opposition 
and  seemed  bent  upon  crushing  the  good  work. 
Ziegenbalg  felt  constrained  to  appeal  directly 
to  King  Frederick  for  protection  in  his  own 
behalf  and  in  behalf  of  the  congregation,  which, 
within  less  than  three  years,  had  increased  to 
one  hundred  souls,  besides  the  candidates  for 
baptism.  One  royal  order  after  another  was 
sent  out  enjoining  favor  toward  the  mission, 
but  in  vain. 


DANISH  MISSIONS.  165 

"In  perils  by  mine  own  countrymen."  Zie- 
genbalg  was  unjustly  thrown  into  prison,  con- 
fined there  for  four  mouths,  and  so  closely 
guarded  that  no  outsider  could  get  access  to 
him.  During  the  first  month  of  confinement 
even  pen  and  ink  were  denied  him.  But  the 
One  who  stood  by  Paul  and  Silas  at  Philippi, 
by  Judson  at  Ava,  by  Worcester  and  Butler 
in  the  penitentiary  of  Georgia,  stood  by  Ziegen- 
balg  in  the  Danish  dungeon  at  Tranquebar. 
The  injured  man  showed  a  forgiving  spirit. 
Whatever  else  might  be  refused  he  could  not 
be  denied  the  luxury  of  praying  for  his  perse- 
cutors.    If  they  would  go  to  the 

„     .    .  ,  ,  ■,  Maltreatment. 

extreme  oi  injury  he  would  go 
to  the  extreme  of  love.  Thus  he  conquered 
the  commandant,  whose  name  was  Hassius,  a 
Norwegian  by  birth.  Released  from  confine- 
ment, the  injured  man  found  his  congregation 
scattered  —  intimidation  and  persecution  having 
done  their  work  —  and  he  must  begin  anew. 
But  the  cruel  proceeding  was  overruled  for 
good.  "Our  imprisonment,"  Ziegenbalg  wrote, 
"has  been  as  a  bell  ringing  far  and  wide 
throughout  Europe  to  awaken  many  thousand 
souls  to  compassionate  us  and  our  young  and 
[growing   community." 

At  length  friendly  letters,  remittances  of 
money,  and  John  Ernest  Griindler,  as  a  reen- 
forcement,  arrived  (1709).      He,  too,  had  taken 


166  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

his  degree  at  Halle.  He  conceived  so  ardent  a 
desire  to  carry  the  gospel  to  the  heathen  that 
he  was  ready  to  go  out  at  his  own  charges 
if  no  other  way  presented.  Polycarp  Jordan,  a 
fellow  student,  did  follow  at  his  own  expense. 
Though  a  German,  Griindler,  like  his  two  pred- 
ecessors, went  to  Copenhagen  for  ordination, 
together  with  John  Bovingh,  who  was  one  of 
a  reenforcement,  but  he  proved  a  marplot  in 
the  mission.  Griindler,  truly  happy  in  his 
work,  became  one  of  the  ablest  of  Christian 
laborers.  This  excellent  man  sur- 
een  orce-     -^-^g^j    ]^jg    friend  '    Ziegenbalg   only 

ments.  o  o  j 

a  year,  and  the  tombs   of  the    two 
are    on   opposite  sides  of  the  altar  in  the  Jeru- 
salem   Church    at   Tranquebar,   as    the    remains 
f  of   Luther  and  Melanchthon,  similarly  disposed, 
H.ie  in  the  old  Castle  Church  at  Wittenberg. 

Not  only  was  a  reenforcement  of  ordained 
men  sent  out,  but  also  a  printing  press  —  funds 
being  furnished  by  friends  in  England  —  and  a 
German  printer.  The  ship  which  carried  press 
and  printer,  sailing  from  England  (1711),  was 
captured  by  a  privateer  at  Rio  de  Janeiro  and 
the  cargo  seized,  but  the  printing  press,  being 
stored  away  in  the  hold,  escaped.  In  a  simi- 
lar way,  at  the  close  of  the  century,  the  Lon- 
don Missionary  Society's  ship,  the  Duff,  suffered 

'  Beide  waren  in  Wahrheit  ein  Herz  und  eine    Seele.      C.  C.  J. 
Schmidt.     Ill,  p.  123. 


DANISH   MISSIONS.  167 

capture  by  the  privateer  Bonaparte  on  the 
South  American  Coast.  This  press  was  the 
first  set  up  by  Protestant  Christians  in  Hin- 
dustan' (1710). 
)  Ziegenbalg's  zeal  could  not  be  restricted  to 
the  narrow  territory  of  Tranquebar.  Dressed 
in  native  costume,  like  William  Chalmers  Burns 
and  others  more  recently  in  China,  he  made 
excursions,  visiting  Madras  and  Nagapatam,  and 
devoting  more  or  less  time  to  labors  at   Cudda- 

lore    beneath    the     banyan    where 

1  ...  -,       Ziegenbalg's 

now   stand    a    mission    house    and  Ardor. 

church.  He  endeavored  to  obtain 
admittance  to  Tanjore,  but  the  Danes  had 
shown  such  intense  greed  of  gain  as  effectually 
prejudiced  the  natives  against  his  approach. 
Wherever  practicable  he  exerted  himself  in  be- 
half of  heathens,  Mohammedans,  and  Catholics. 
There  was  a  touch  of  Martin  Luther  about 
him.  Malignant  opposition  of  Romanists  made 
the  Tranquebar  missionary  cry  out  in  prayer: 
"  May  the  Lord  of  hosts,  whose  work  we  de- 
sign to  promote,  perfect  us  and  gather  unto 
himself  at  last  a  church  and  peculiar  people 
from  among  this  wild  multitude  of  heathens ! 
And  then  let  the  Devil  and  his  infernal  herd 
rage  against  it  to  the  utmost;  we  know  there 
is   an   overruling   Power   confining  him  to  such 

'  Note  32. 


168  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

boundaries  as  he  will  not  be  able  to  pass." 
Bold,  ardent,  courageous,  and  somewhat  impul- 
sive, he  was  occasionally  betrayed  into  appar- 
ent rashness,  as  when  on  one  occasion  he  de- 
molished an  idol  in  the  presence  of  heathen 
worshipers. 

Pliitschau,  faithful  but  quiet,  and  somewhat 
deficient  in  force  of  character,  having  com- 
pleted the  period  of  his  engagement  (five 
years)  and  suffering  from  impaired  health,  re- 
turned home  in  1711.  Three  years  later  Zie- 
genbalg    paid     a    visit    to    Europe. 

^"suid  ^^^^^'^  ^®^®  difficulties  which  he 
hoped  a  personal  conference  with 
the  directors  of  the  Danish  East  India  Com- 
pany and  with  the  College  of  Missions  would 
enable  him  to  remove.  Speaking  of  his  de- 
parture he  wrote : '  "  Every  one  of  our  young 
men  and  old  men  have  wet  my  hands  and  my 
feet  with  tears." 

\Penmark  was  then  at  war  with  Sweden;  but 
the  king  received  our  returned  missionary  as 
he  had  Pliitschau,  very  graciously,  at  Stral- 
sund  in  Pomerania,  which  he  was  then  besieg- 
ing. Ziegenbalg  naturally  visited  Copenhagen. 
At  Halle  and  elsewhere  in  Germany  his  pres- 
ence awakened  interest ;  his  preaching  was  elo- 
quent, and  crowds  thronged  to  hear  him.  The 
Duke  of  Wiirtemberg  favored  collections  being 

'  He  left  Tranquebar  October  26,  1714. 


DANISH    MISSIONS.  169 

taken  up  throughout  his  dominion.  In  return- 
ing to  India  our  niissionary — now  accompanied 
,by  a  help  meet  for  him  —  went  to  England, 
where  he  had  an  audience  with  George  I  and 
the  royal  family,  preached  repeatedly  in  the 
Savoy  and  royal  chapel,  and  received  many 
contributions  for  the  work  in  India.  His  stay, 
though  not  long,  was  the  occasion  of  new  in- 
terest in  the  cause  of  missions  to  the  heathen. 
But  religious  life  was  then  at  a  low  ebb.  As 
on  the  Continent,  latitudinarianism  and  spiritual 
languor  prevailed.  Throughout  the  Church  of 
England,  and  to  a  sad  extent  also  among  dis- 
senting bodies,  a  semi-pagan  praise  of  virtue 
(ir^tead  of  Christ  and  him  crucified  filled  the 
pulpit,  and  a  semi-rationalism  was  spreading. 

The  next  year  after  Ziegenbalg's  return '  to 
Tranquebar  (1717)  over  thirty  natives  were 
admitted  by  baptism  to  the  Christian  commu- 
nity and  the  year  following  upwards  of  fifty. 
In  the  course  of  twelve  years'  active  service 
he  performed  no  small  amount  of  literary  labor. 
On  his  vojage  to  Europe  just  referred  to  he 
took  with  him  a  Tamil  boy  for  the  sake  of 
continued  exercise  in  the  language,  and  then 
commenced  in  Latin  a  grammar  of  the  Tamil, 
which  to  this  day  is  not  wholly  superseded. 
In  the  same  manner,  more  than  a  century 
later    (1845),    Judson,    when     he     sailed    from 


'  He  arrived  March,  1716. 


170 


PROTESTANT    MISSIONS. 


Literary 
Labors. 


Maulmain  for  Boston,  took  with  him  two  na- 
tive assistants  that  he  might  continue  his  prep- 
aration of  the  Burmese  dictionary.  Ziegenbalg 
engaged  in  the  transhition  of  several  minor 
productions,  some  of  them  from  the  Halle  stock 
of  literature.  Choice  German  hymns  were  ren- 
dered into  Tamil.  But  his  chief  work  was  the 
translation  of  the  entire  New  Testament  and 
a  portion  of  the  Old  Testament,  as  far  as 
the  Book  of  Ruth.  This  formed 
the  basis  of  the  Tamil  Scriptures 
now  in  use.  It  has  the  defects 
characteristic  of  many  translations  of  the  Scrip- 
tures—  it  was  not  idiomatic'  Thus  two  hun- 
dred years  after  Luther's  immortal  work  the 
first  version  of  God's  Word  into  a  language  of 
India  was  made.  It  should  be  added  that  the 
Tamil  belongs  to  the  Dravidian,  the  Southern 
great  stock  of  languages,  and  though  the  San- 
skrit element  is  large  —  forty  per  cent  —  it  is 
less  than  in  most  others.  The  area  of  Tamil- 
speaking  natives  is  about  the  same  as  that  of 
England  and  Wales,  and  the  Tamulians  are  the 
most  important  family  of  peoples  in  the  south- 
,ern  part  of  the  peninsula.  But  neither  the 
Sanskrit,  that  mother  of  languages,  unsurpassed 
by  any  other,  living  or  dead,  in  its  power  of 
precision  and  expansion,  nor  the  English,  so 
much    coveted    by  young    Hindustan,   nor    any 


Note  33. 


DANISH    MISSIONS.  171 

other  foreign  tongue  can  be  the  medium  of 
general  evangelization.  That  must  be  the 
office  of  vernaculars.  Ziegenbalg  wisely  set 
about  the  translation  of  our  Holy  Scriptures 
into  the  Tamil.  The  first  edition  of  the  New 
Testament  was  issued  in  1716.  Since  that  date 
versions  of  a  part  or  the  whole  of  the  Bible 
have  been  made  into  perhaps  threescore  other 
native  languages,  to  say  nothing  of  sundry  vari- 
ous tentative  translations.  India  has  thus  been 
enriched  beyond  all  that  Golconda  ever  yielded. 
Do  we  hold  to  the  unique  divine  inspiration 
of  our  canon,  and,  while  conceding  the  human 
elements,  yet  do  we  bow  to  the  volume  as  su- 
premely authoritative?  To  the  apprehension  of 
the  Hindu  there  are  scores  of  productions  in 
his  sacred  literature  that  issued  as  the  very 
breath  from  the  mouth  of  the  Self-existent. 
The  pundit  deems  our  Bible  puny.  His  own 
divine  writings  he  pronounces  a  fathomless, 
shoreless  ocean.  With  him  vastness  is  a  crite- 
rion   of  excellence.      He   revels   in   the  intermi-   ,^  .  __  ^ 

'nable.  Does  the  reading  of  three  great  epics —  ^^L,x^t,^^' 
the  Iliad^  the  j^Meid,  and  Paradise  Lost  —  seem  '^A^^;^*?'^ 
a  rather  formidable  undertaking  in  our  busy 
age?  The  great  epic  of  India,  the  Mahahha- 
rata^  is  double  the  length  of  those  three  com- 
bined. Time  is  of  small  value  in  the  East. 
Hindu  imagination  revels  in  vague  immensity 
and  inane  prolixity. 


2.CC- 


'-^ 


172  PROTESTANT    MISSIONS. 

Marshall,  who  devotes  two  stout  volumes 
to  disparaging  Protestant  missionaries,  remarks : 
"  Of  Ziegenbalg  but  little  need  he  said,  for  it 
does  not  appear  that  his  life  supplies  any  ma- 
terial for  history."  '  To  lead  the  first  mission 
which  carried  the  gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  to  continental  India ;  to  do  this  in  spite 
of  prejudice,  misconception,  derision,  apathy^ 
and  calumny  (one  pamphlet  pronounced  him 
"  a  Pietist  and  an  impious  idiot ")  ;  to  give  the 
book  of  the  new  covenant  in  their  own  lan- 
guage to  a  people  numbering  fifteen  millions, 
from  whom  Romish  propagandists  had  with- 
held it  for  more  than  a  century ;  to  consume 
strength  in  a  self-denying,  persistent  devotion 
to  the  highest  interests  of  a  pagan  people,  some 
of  whom  are  now  praising  God  in  glory — will 
strike  others  as  not  unworthy  of  record. 

"Far  in  the  East  I  see  upleap 

The  streaks  of  first  forewarning, 
And  they  who  sowed  tlie  light  shall  reap 
The  golden  sheaves  of  morning." 

Cotton  Mather,  to  whom  Ziegenbalg  had  writ- 
ten in  Latin,  replies  in  the  same  language:  "A 
work  how  illustrious !  how  celestial !  how  sub- 
lime !  O,  thrice  and  four  times  happy  they 
who  are  ministers  of  God  in  such  a  work ! 
Happy   though   never   so    much    harrassed    with 


•  Christian  Missions,  I,  p.  280. 


DANISH  MISSIONS.  173 

labors  and  watchings  and  perpetual  troubles! 
Happy  beyond  all  expression  did  they  but 
know  their  own  happiness ! "  '  A  purse  made 
up  by  young  gentlemen  in  Boston  was  for- 
warded to  Ziegenbalg  in  aid  of  his  charity 
schools.  Prayer,  also,  was  elicited  in  behalf 
of  the  work  carried  on  at  Tranquebar.''  The 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  writing  to  Ziegen- 
balg and  Griindler  (on  New  Year's  Day), 
says :  "  I  consider  your  lot  is  far  higher  than 
all  church  dignities.  Let  others  be  prelates, 
patriarchs,  and  popes ;  let  them  be  adorned 
with  purple  and  scarlet ;  let  them  desire  bow- 
ings and  genuflections — yoi\  have  won  a  greater 
honor  than  all  these." 

Ziegenbalg  had  overworked.  Perplexities  wore 
upon  him.  Discouragements  are  peculiarly  re- 
laxing and  disheartening  in  the  tropics.  Amidst 
his  valuable  labors  fatal  sickness  came  upon 
him,  and  the  twenty-third  day  of  February, 
1719,  was  his  last  on  earth.^  He  asked  to  have 
the  hymn  sung: 

"Jesus,  my  Redeemer,  lives; 
Christ,  my  trust,  is  dead  no  more."* 

Putting  his  hands  to  his  eyes  he  exclaimed: 


'  Opus  quam  illustre,  quam  celeste,  quam  sublime,  etc. 
2  Note  34. 

^  Dock  die  Nacht  kam  noch  vor  mittag.     Baierlein,  p.  84. 
*  Jesus,  vieine  Zuversicht.     By  Louisa  Henrietta  Ton  Branden- 
burg, wife  of  the  Great  Elector,  Frederick  William. 


174  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

"  How  is   it   all   so    clear  ?      It  seems    as   if  the 
/sun  were  shining   in  my  eyes ! "      At   thirty-six 
I  years   of    age    Clive,   the   hero   of    Plassey   and 
Vl  founder    of    the    British    Empire   in    India,  was 
U-aised  to    the   peerage ;    at  thirty-six  Ziegenbalg 
was  raised  to  a  place  among  those  "made  kings 
and  priests  unto  God  and  his  Father."     Thirty- 
six   was    the    age    of    John    Mayhew    when    he 
closed    his   missionary   work   on   Martha's  Vine- 
I  yard  and  when  Samuel  J.  Mills  was  committed 
'  to  the  great  cemetery  of  the  sea.     At  the  same 
age  Ann  Haseltine    Judson,  the   first   American 
woman  who   resolved  to  go    to  India   as  a  mis- 
sionary,  was    buried    beneath    a    widespreading 
Hopia  tree  in   Burmah ;    and  the  same  year,  at 
the  same  age,  Gordon  Hall,  the   first   American 
imissionary    in    Bombay,    amidst    the   agonies   of 
Asiatic   cholera,  on    the    veranda   of    a   heathen 
Itemple,  exclaimed   three   times,  "  Glory  to  thee, 
P  God ! "  and  then  fell  asleep  in  Jesus. 


vin 

CHRISTIAN   FREDERICK   SCHWARTZ 


"We  will  station  ourselves  for  a  moment  in 
the  heart  of  Germany  at  the  middle  of  the  18th 
century.  Frederick  the  Great,  self-reliant,  per- 
sistent, skeptical,  with  a  penetrating  genius,  but 
without  exalted  ideas,  is  midway  in  his  brilliant 
and  checkered  course.  The  peace  of  Aix-la- 
Chapelle  (1748)  ended  the   eight 

,    -ffT  ^      ,  n.        ,    •         ri  Germany,   1750. 

years  War  ot  the  Austrian  Suc- 
cession and  secured  a  breathing  time  before  the 
seven  years'  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession.  Iri 
the  world  of  letters  a  new  era  is  dawning  — 
the  birth  epoch  of  a  literature  varied  and  rich. 
Klopstock,  always  more  praised  than  read,  has 
produced  the  first  cantos  of  his  Messiah.  Less- 
ing,  with  his  strong  German  genius  and  lan^ 
guage,  is  just  coming  upon  the  stage  and  will 
give  impulse  to  the  national  mind,  especially  in 
the  line  of  independent  thought.  The  noble 
Gellert,  of  Leipzig,  shows  a  classic  ease  and 
keen  good  sense,  which  delight  the  entire  pub- 


176  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

lie,  even  peasants,  one  of  whom  leaves  a  cart- 
load of  firewood  at  his  door  as  an  acknowledg- 
ment of  what  he  has  enjoyed  in  reading  the 
poet's  fables.  Good-natured  "  Father  Gleira " 
indicates  the  new  tendency  of  utter  frivolity. 
"  From  my  earliest  days,"  says  he,  "  I  have  had 
a  thought  of  writing  a  book  like  the  Bible." 
The  result  was  a  treatise  thoroughly  common- 
place and  valueless  on  virtue.  The  philosophy 
of  Leibnitz  and  Wolf  is  making  inroads  upon 
pietism,  which  has  lost  somewhat  of  its  vitality 
and  is,  to  a  certain  extent,  growing  narrow  and 
censorious.  Semler,  who  inaugurates  a  move- 
ment issuing  speedily  in  rationalism,  is  called 
(1751)  to  Halle,  and  Michaelis,  who  contrib- 
utes to  the  same  result,  is  installed  at  Got- 
tingen  (1750).  Emanuel  Swedenborg  occupies 
himself  with  what  he  is  j)leased  to  call  reve- 
lations. English  deism,  previously  introduced 
into  France,  has  been  transplanted  into  Ger- 
many and  is  yielding  baleful  fruits. ,  The  age 
is  one  of  hoUowness ;  few  truly  great  men,  few 
conspicuous  men  with  noble  motives,  are  any- 
where to  be  foLindrf 

It  was  in  1750  that  Christian  Frederick 
Schwartz,  better  known  to  English  and  Amer- 
ican readers  than  any  other  German  missionary, 
one  of  the  more  eminent  men  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  sailed  for  Tranquebar.  He  was  born 
(October    26,  1726)   at   Sonnenburg   in    Prussia, 


chuistiAn"  prederice:  schwartz.      17 T 

fifty  miles  east  from  Berlin  —  a  place  now  de- 
cayed, but  of  note  when  the  Knights  of  St. 
John  made  it  one  of  their  seats  and  held  fes- 
tivals there.  Unlike  the  crusaders  Schwartz 
and  his  townsman,  Schultze,  another  able  mis- 
sionary, were  true  standard  bearers  of  the  cross 
in  the  East.  Like  many  another  missionary 
Schwartz  had  a  pious  mother,  who  died  during 
his  infancy,  but  who,  just  before  decease,  in- 
formed her  husband  and  her  pastor  that  she 
had  dedicated  this  son  to  the  Lord;  and  she 
obtained  from  them  the  pledge 
that  he  should  be  informed  of 
this,  should  be  trained  accordingly,  and,  if  he 
chose  the  sacred  ministry,  they  would  give  him 
encouragement.  The  year  of  his  entering  the 
gymnasium  at  Kiistrin  (1740),  whither  his 
father  accompanied  him  on  foot,  was  the  same 
with  the  accession  of  Frederick  the  Great, 
who,  ten  years  before,  had  been  a  prisoner  in 
this  fortified  town.  A  young  lady  interested 
herself  in  his  spiritual  welfare,  loaning  him 
a  work'  by  the  celebrated  August  Hermann 
Francke,  which  made  a  deep  impression  on  his 
mind  and  marked  the  turning  point  in  his  life. 
Among  the  lectures  which  he  attended  at  the 
University  of  Halle  were  those  of  the  professor 
just  named  (Francke).  He  was  recommended 
to  take  lessons  in  Tamil,  with  a  view  to    assist 


'  SeegensvoUe  Fusstapen. 


178  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

Schultze,  a  returned  missionary  from  Madras, 
in  carrying  Tamil  works  through  the  press  for 
use  in  India. 

Such  is  the  immediate  occasion  of  his 
thoughts  being  turned  toward  that  part  of 
the  world.  Provided  his  father's  approval  can 
be  obtained  he  proposes  to  offer  himself  as  a 
missionary.  But  great  obstacles  stand  in  the 
way.  Christian  Frederick  being  the  eldest  son 
is  looked  upon  as  the  chief  hope  of  the  family, 
so  that  no  one  supposes  parental  consent  can 
be  had.  With  great  seriousness  the  young 
candidate  states  his  wishes  and  his  motive. 
The  father  very  suitably  takes  a  few  days  to 
consider,  mentioning  the  time  when  his  deci- 
sion will  be  made  known.  At  the  hour  named 
he  comes  down  from  his  chamber,  gives  his 
blessing,  bids  him  go  in  God's  name,  forgetting 
native  land  and  kindred  that  he  may  win  souls 
to  Christ.  The  mother's  dedication  is  thus 
crowned  with  the  father's  benediction.  Resign- 
ing his  patrimony  to  younger  members  of  the 
family  he  hastens  back  to  Halle,  and,  though 
he  receives  within  a  few  days  the  offer  of  an 
eligible  situation  in  the  ministry  at  home,  hav- 
ing put  his  hand  to  the  plow  he  will  not 
look  back.  You  recall  the  similar  case  of 
Horton,  Brainerd,  Hall,  and   many   another. 

The  spiritual  life  of  German  churches  has  at 
this   time    evidently   declined,  yet   a   warm  cur- 


CHRISTIAN    FREDERICK    SCHWARTZ.         179 

rent  may  still  be  traced  and  there  are  a  few 
who  sympathize  with  Schwartz.  Some  sweet 
singers  of  Israel  there  are  to  whom  the  prom- 
ised glories  of  Messiah's  kingdom  do  not  seem 
visionary,  and  although  hymnody  has  lost 
much  of  its  freshness  and  power  the  deeply 
pious  Tersteegen  is  in  his  advanced  prime ;  so 
is  Hiller,  who  composed  more  than  a  thousand 
hymns.  That  was  the  time  when  the  first 
strictly  missionary  hymn  appeared  in  the  Ger- 
man language,  under  the  title,  "A  prayer  to 
the  Lord  to  send  faithful  laborers  into  his  har- 
vest, that  his  Word  may  be  spread  over  all  the 
world."  It  was  composed  (1749)  by  Charles 
Henry  von  Bogatsky,  author  of  the  well-known 
Grolden  Treasury.  The  author  states  that  it 
was  written  at  a  time  when  the  Lord  specially 
stirred  him  up  to  pray  for  the  extension  of  his 
kingdom  by  means  of  devoted  Christian  work- 
ers.' The  hymn  is  still  a  favorite  at  mission- 
ary meetings  in  Germany.  It  consists  of  four- 
teen stanzas  and  begins  : 

Wach  auf,  du   Geist  der  ersten  Zeugen. 

"Awake,  thou  Spirit,  who  of  old 
Didst  fire  the  watchmen  of  the  Church's  youth, 

Who  faced  the  foe,  unshrinking,  bold. 
Who  witnessed  day  and  night  the  eternal  truth ; 
Whose  voices  through  the  world  are  ringing  still. 
And  bringing  hosts  to  know  and  do  thy  will!" 


'  Kiibler's  Historical  Notes  to  Lyra  Germanica,  p.  41. 


180  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

With  a  song  in  his  heart  Schwartz  goes  on 
his  way.  Like  his  predecessors  in  the  Ger- 
mano-Danish  mission  he  proceeds,  in  company 
with  two  other  candidates,  to  Copenhagen  for 
ordination  (September,  1749).  They  take  Eng- 
land in  their  way  to  India.  While  they  were 
lying  in  Falmouth  Harbor,  where  contrary 
winds  detained  them  for  a  month  (March, 
1750),  "an  inhabitant  of  the  town,"  so  writes 
Schwartz,  "  came  on  board  who  had  been  pow- 
erfully awakened  by  Mr.  Whitefield,"  which 
suggests  that  a  favorable  change 
has  begun  in  the  religious  condi- 
tion of  Great  Britain  compared  with  the  time, 
half  a  century  earlier,  when  the  first  two  mis- 
sionaries, Ziegenbalg  and  Pliitschau,  were  on 
their  way  to  India.  This  side  the  ocean  in 
1750  we  see  the  Moravian  Zeisberger  also  fas- 
tening his  eye  upon  the  Six  Nations ;  three 
years  since  David  Brainerd  fell  asleep  in  Jesus 
and  his  brother  John  succeeded  him ;  Jolm  Ser- 
geant, missionary  among  the  Indians  in  West- 
ern Massachusetts,  died  one  year  ago  (1749); 
and  Jonathan  Edwards,  dismissed  from  North- 
ampton the  present  season,  will  soon  succeed 
him  in  the  same  work  (1751). 

When  Schwartz  reached  India  (July,  1750) 
it  was  in  the  midst  of  protracted  struggles  for 
ascendancy   between    the    French    and    English.' 


'G.  B.  Malleson :  History  of  the  Frtnch  in  India.    London,  1893. 


CHRISTIAN    FREDERICK   SCHWARTZ.        181 

Each  sought  alliance,  now  with  one,  now  with 
another,  native  prince,  till  the  strife  carried 
desolation  to  many  portions  of  the  Carnatic. 
English  power  finally  gains  ascendancy.  For 
the  interests  of  the  kingdom  of  God  that  re- 
sult, in  his  good  providence,  bids  fair  to  prove 
scarcely  less  important  than  the  corresponding 
supremacy  which  the  English  instead  of  the 
French  achieved  at  the  same  period  on  this 
Western  Continent.  It  was  in  1750  that  Clive, 
who  went  out  two  years  before  as  a  writer  in 
the  employ  of  the  East  India  Company,  cap- 
tured Arcot,  the  capital  of  the  Carnatic. 

The  disturbed  state  of  that  country  does 
not  hinder  our  missionary  from  settling  down 
quietly  to  his  work  at  Tranquebar.  He  enters 
upon  a  field  already  cultivated  to  some  extent. 
We  revert  for  a  moment  to  that  earlier  period 
at  which  our  survey  in  the  preceding  lecture 
closed.     The  next  year  after  Zie- 

,1,1.1.1  1         The  Mission. 

genbalgs  death  three  new  col- 
leagues arrived,  one  of  whom  was  Benjamin 
Schultze,  an  excellent  linguist.  He  was  some- 
what familiar  with  the  classics  and  with  He- 
brew, as  well  as  various  modern  languages 
—  the  French,  Spanish,  Italian,  Danish,  and 
Dutch.  True  to  the  German  linguistic  instinct 
he  soon  mastered  the  Tamil  and  completed  the 
translation  of  the  Old  Testament  into  that 
tongue,   and    the    New    Testament,  as    well    as 


182  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

portions  of  the  Old,  into  Telugu.  He  was  an 
ardent  man,  a  hard-working  man,  mentally  su- 
perior to  his  associates ;  and,  as  is  apt  to  be 
true  in  such  cases,  he  grew  somewhat  arbitrary 
and  could  not  work  comfortably  with  them. 
After  laboring  six  years  in  and  around  Tran- 
quebar  he  removed  to  Madras  and  passed  into 
the  employ  of  the  English  Society  for  Propa- 
gating the  Gospel  (1726).  ,  Seven  hundred 
heathen  and  Roman  Catholics  were  baptized 
by   him. 

Want  of  time  forbids  the  rehearsal  of  all 
those  names  which  appear  in  the  list  of  reen- 
forcements  at  various  intervals,  as  well  as  de- 
tailed accounts  of  the  operations  of  the  mission. 
In  1740,  a  little  more  than  thirty  years  from 
its  beginning  —  perhaps  at  its  maximum  of  suc- 
cess—  it  had  indirectly,  by  offshoots,  extended 
northward  to  the  settlements  of  Cuddalore  and 
Madras  and  toward  the  interior  into  the  king- 
dom of  Tanjore.  A  staff  of  ten  European  and 
about  thirty  native  laborers,  one  of  the  latter 
ordained,  were  in  the  field,  and  between  five 
and  six  thousand  baptisms  had  taken  place. 
By  some  it  is  estimated  that  at  the  time  of 
Schwartz's  arrival  nine  thousand  nominal  con- 
verts had  been  secured. 

Within  four  months  from  his  arrival  at 
Tranquebar  this  young  missionary,  having  the 
usual    German   facility  for   acquiring  languages, 


CHRISTIAN    FREDERICK    SCHWARTZ.         183 

preaches   his    first    sermon    in    TamiL      Besides  ^^ 
y-        keeping     up     his     study    of    the    Hebrew    and'^'^^ 
'^     )Greek    Scriptures    he    masters    the    Tamil    and  , 
nc^-. --iincio-Portuguese  "  and   comes  to  speak  the  Per- | 
sian   fluently  — that   being    the    tongue    in    use  ^ 
by  one  part  of  the   Mohammedan  population  —  / 
also   the  Hindustani,  the    lingua  franca  of  that 
country. 

His  theory  —  a  sound  one,  and  to  which 
his  practice  corresponded  —  was  that  preaching 
should  be  the  chief  work  of  the  missionary. 
True  he  early  engaged  in  cate-  ^^  y,,,,,^^^,y, 
chising  the  schools,  Tamil  and 
Portuguese,  and  this  may  be  called  one  branch 
and  form  of  preaching.  He  did  much  in  the 
way  of  establishing  and  maintaining  schools, 
and,  like  Isaac  Watts  and  some  other  eminent 
men  who  have  remained  unmarried,  he  was 
noticeably  fond  of  children.  Yet  the  more  pub- 
lic oral  promulgation  of  the  gospel  to  adults 
was  Schwartz's  vocation. 

/In  the  year  1556  Martin  Luther  preached 
aV  Eisleben,  his  native  place,  from  the  closing 
verses  of  the  eleventh  chapter  of  Matthew's 
Gospel,  "Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and 
are  heavy  laden."  It  was  his  last  sermon  and 
only  three  days  before  his  death.  Two  hun- 
dred years  afterwards  Schwartz  took  up  the 
same  subject  from  the  same  words  as  the  text 

'Note  35. 


184  PBOTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

of  his  first  Tamil  sermon^  What  could  be 
more  appropriate  for  the  venerable  reformer 
of  the  sixteenth  century  or  this  youthful  evan- 
gelist of  the  eighteenth?  The  cross,  which  can 
never  fail  to  supply  subject-matter  and  inspi- 
ration to  the  preacher,  be  his  field  what  it 
may,  Schwartz  kept  steadily  in  mind.  Has 
not  "  Conquer  by  this ! "  sounded  in  the  ear 
of  every  successful  leader  of  the  sacramental 
host,  from  the  great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles  to 
the  last  lay  evangelist?"  Wherever  he  went  — 
by  the  wayside,  in  the  choltry,  in  the  shadow 
of  Brahmanic  temples,  in  the  English  camp,  and 
at  the  court  of  the  nabob  —  he  was  faithfully 
intent  upon  making  known  the  gospel  of  sal- 
vation. Of  this  kind  of  labor,  preeminently 
fitting,  he  performed  more,  perhaps,  than  any 
other  man  in  the  whole  history  of  Danish 
missions. 

Schwartz  was  not  of  ardent  temperament ; 
did  not  develop  rapidly,  but  in  a  gradual 
growth.  Ambition  to  shine  in  India  or  to  win 
a  reputation  in  Europe  did  not  incite  to  pre- 
mature or  impatient  demonstrations.  The  aver- 
age man  should  be  content  to  spend  the  first 
ten  years  of  his  professional  life  in  laying 
[wisely  the  foundations  on  which  he  may  ex- 
\pect  to  build  for  the  remainder  of  life.  Dur- 
ing  his    first   decade    in    India    our    missionary 

•  Note  36. 


CHRISTIAN   FREDERICK    SCHWARTZ.         185 

was  doing  that.  Associates  did  not  predict  his 
future.  Mastering  the  vernaculars  required  in 
rhis  work  he  also  made  himself  familiar  with 
(the  religious  views,  social  condition,  history, 
'habits,  and  entire  circle  of  mental  associations 
]of  the  people.  Year  after  year  he  not  only 
used  but  was  qualifying  himself  the  better  to 
use  God's  Word  as  the  key  for  opening  a 
way  into  the  hideous  chambers  of  imagery 
in  the  native  mind.  His  sphere  of  operation 
gradually  enlarges.  He  visits  Negapatam,  one 
hundred  and  eighty  miles  southward  from  Ma- 
dras. In  response  to  an  invitation  from  Cey- 
lon (1760)  he  visits  Jaffna  —  in  which  district 
the  American  Board  has  now  for  nearly  four- 
score years  had  a  mission  —  and  proceeds  to 
Colombo  and  to  Point  de  Galle,  the  southern 
extremity  of  the  island,  "  confirming  the  souls 
of  the  disciples."  There  was  a  five  months* 
absence  from  his  own  field.  Later  he  makes 
an  excursion  to  Madura  at  the  time  of  its 
siege  and  capture  (1764),  and  where  our 
American  mission  was  established  in  1834. 
He  makes  a  tour  to  Palamcotta,  three  hun- 
dred miles  from  Madras,  in  the  district  of 
Tinnevelly,  the  region  of  remarkable  suc- 
cess at  the  present  day  on  the  part  of  the 
English  Church  Missionary  Society.  /For  the 
first  twenty  years  of  his  life  in  India  he  usu- 
ally   walked    when    journeying.  )  Accompanied 


186  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

by  another  missionary  he  went  in  that  way  to 
Tanjore  (1762),  which  place  he  often  visited 
afterwards.  It  will  be  recollected  that  Tanjore 
is  the  native  capital  of  Southern  India,  six 
'oniles  in  circumference  —  the  Benares  of  the 
South  —  an  ancient  center  of  learning  and  re- 
ligious influence.  Within  that  little  kingdom, 
now  only  a  province,  are  temples  unsurpassed 
in  number  and  magnificence,  and  at  that  date 
there  were  a  hundred  thousand  Brahmans  liv- 
ing in  voluptuous  sloth.  Forty  miles  from 
Tanjore  up  the  River  Cavery  is  the  town  of 
Trichinopoly.  After  the  Christian  Knowledge 
Society  established  a  mission  there  (1767) 
Schwartz  came  under  their  patronage,  and  spent 
the  remainder  of  his  life  chiefly  at  that  place 
and  at  Tanjore.  Purposing  at  first  to  remain 
only  a  few  weeks  he  prolonged  his  stay  for 
more  than  thirty  years. 

Although  more  than  a  third  of  a  century  has 

passed    since   my   visit   to   that  place   it    comes 

with  great  distinctness  to  recollection,  and  more 

especially    the    Rock    of    Trichin- 

^^^R^^k^"^  opoly,  an  inland  Gibraltar,  loom- 
ing abruptly  from  the  plain  — 
isolated,  bold,  precipitous,  three  hundred  feet 
in  height,  surmounted  by  a  fortress  and  a  pa- 
goda. Lower  down  is  a  larger  temple  and  the 
magazine.  The  ascent  is  by  stone  steps,  and 
the   view    from    the    summit    is    one    never    to 


CHBISTIAN    FREDERICK    SCHWAHTZ.         187 

be  forgotten.  Beneath  you  see  the  fort,  the 
rajah's  palace,  and  a  population  of  eighty  thou- 
sand souls ;  while  stretching  out  in  all  direc- 
tions lies  an  illimitable  plain,  fertile  and  popu- 
lous. Two  miles  distant  the  river  divides  and 
forms  the  sacred  island  of  Seringham,  where 
stands  a  famous  temple.  Temples  in  India  are 
numberless,  and  as  a  general  thing  are  small. 
No  seats  are  found  in  them  nor  any  assemblage 
to  receive  instruction.  As  compared  with  such 
structures  in  middle  and  northern  districts 
those  in  Southern  India  are  on  a  grander  scale 
and  have  more  ample  decorations.  Remarkable 
as  some  of  these  are  they  are  yet  perhaps  less 
wonderful  than  the  rock  temples.'  This  struc- 
ture in  Seringham  has  an  outer  wall  four  miles 
in  extent,  with  a  main  entrance  truly  magnifi- 
cent. Some  of  the  stones  built  into  the  front 
are  of  a  size  equal  to  those  in  the  foundations 
of  Solomon's  temple  —  thirty  feet  or  more  in 
length  and  five  in  thickness.  Fourteen  pyram- 
idal towers  rise  to  a  great  height  around  the 
inclosure.  Inside  are  seven  square  inclosures, 
one  within  another  —  answering  in  number  to 
the    quadrangular    courts    which    compose     the 


'  John  Dudley  :  Naology.  London,  1846.  M.  W.  Carr :  The 
Seven  Pagodas  of  the  Coromandel  Coast.  Madras,  1809.  James 
Fergusson :  Illustrations  of  the  Rock-  Cut  Temples  in  India.  Lon- 
don, 1846.  James  Fergusson ;  History  of  Indian  and  Eastern 
Architecture.    London,  1876. 


188  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

heaven  of  Vishnu  —  each  surrounded  by  a  wall 
twenty-five  feet  high.  One  apartment,  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  feet  in  length,  has  a  flat  stone 
roof,  supported  by  a  thousand  pillars,  no  two 
of  them  alike  —  each  pillar  a  single  block  of 
granite,  elaborately  carved  and  representing 
some  legend  in  the  history  of  the  god  to 
whom  the  temple  is  dedicated.  Five  thousand 
priests  are  there  accommodated,  and  throngs  of 
debased  worshipers  resorting  thither  correspond 
with  the  general  scale  of  things.  But  for  the 
Christian  visitor  a  special  interest  attaches  to 
Trichinopoly  as  the  place  where  Schwartz  la- 
bored faithfully  and  where  the  author  of  our 
iifavorite  missionary  hymn  closed  his  pilgrimage. 
You  are  shown  the  bath  in  which,  April  2, 
1826,  was  found  the  lifeless  body  of  Bishop 
Heber. 

This  part  of  the  Carnatic  was,  in  the  course 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  scene  of  repeated 
struggles  between  the  English  and  French'  and 
between  English  and  native  forces.  It  is  in- 
separably associated  with  the  name  of  a  Mo- 
hammedan prince,  Hyder  Ali,  the  ablest  enemy 
which  England  has  met  in  India.  As  the  mis- 
sionary life  of  Schwartz  fell  within  the  period 
and  in  the  vicinity  of  such  fierce  struggles  he 
could    not    easily    avoid    certain    offices    which 


'  G.  B.  Malleson :   History  of  the  French  in   India.     Londoa, 
1893. 


CHRISTIAN    FREDERICK    SCHWARTZ.         189 

were  as  exceptional  as  was  the  general  condi- 
tion of  things.  If  Washington  wisely  advised 
our  nation  to  avoid  all  entangling  foreign  alli- 
ances, much  more  is  it  needful  that  ambassa- 
dors of  Christ  should  ordinarily  keep  aloof 
from  political  complications  and  from  secular 
engagements  which  do  not  necessarily  pertain 
to  their  high  vocation.  Those  in  the  employ  of 
the  American  Board  are  charged  very  strictly 
upon  this  point.  To  enter  the  service  of  any 
government  sunders  the  connection  of  a  mis- 
sionary  with   that   Board.      Jesuit 

missionaries    have   everywhere    en-      _.  ,     ^   . 

.        ^  Diploniatist. 

gaged  in  political  intrigues,  often 
apparently  advantageous  to  them  at  the  outset, 
but  always  damaging  at  last.  In  the  case  of 
Schwartz  there  would  seem  to  have  been  a 
clear  propriety  in  his  accepting  certain  outside 
engagements  that  were  urged  upon  him  and 
which  the  exigencies  of  the  hour  appeared  to 
render  imperative.  He  was  solicited  to  act  as 
medium  of  communication  between  the  local 
English  government  and  some  of  the  native 
princes  and  even  between  a  native  prince  and 
his  own  subjects.  Intimate  acquaintance  with 
the  vernacular  languages  and  with  the  condi- 
tion and  customs  of  the  country,  a  sense  of 
gratitude  to  the  East  India  Company  for  favors 
shown  him,  an  opportunity  to  serve  important 
interests  auxiliary    to  his  greater  work,  and  aji 


190  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

opportunity  to  make  known  the  truth  where 
he  could  not  otherwise  have  done  it  induced 
him,  without  suspending  his  sacred  office,  to 
undertake  temporarily  an  additional  service. 
"At  the  same  time  I  resolved,"  he  says — and 
a  wise  resolution  it  was — "I  resolved  to  keep 
my  hands  undefiled  from  any  presents,  by 
which  determination  the  Lord  enabled  me  to 
abide  —  so  that  I  have  not  accepted  a  single 
farthing  save  my  traveling  expenses."  The  na- 
tives are  shrewd  in  judging  of  character.  Hy- 
der  Ali  was  eminently  sagacious,  and  any  trace 
of  a  mercenary  spirit  would  have  been  fatal 
to  our  missionary's  influence.  But  with  such 
manifest  unselfishness  and  frank  sincerity  did 
he  carry  himself  as  to  win  fullest  confidence. 
Afterwards  the  sanguinary  Hyder,  in  the  midst 
of  a  devastating  career,  gave  orders  to  his 
army  officers  "to  permit  the  venerable  Padre 
Schwartz  to  pass  unmolested  and  to  show  him 
respect  and  kindness,  for  he  is  a  holy  man 
and  means  no  harm  to  my  government."  In 
the  course  of  the  war  the  fort  of  Tanjore  was 
reduced  to  straits,  provisions  being  insufficient 
even  for  the  garrison,  much  less  for  a  throng 
not  belonging  to  the  garrison.  A  powerful 
enemy  was  at  hand.  Grain  enough  might  be 
found  in  the  country,  but  no  means  of  trans- 
portation. Outsiders,  deceived  and  abused  by 
government  officials,  had  lost  all  confidence  and 


CHRISTIAN    FREDERICK   SCHWARTZ.        191 

refused  to  render  assistance.  The  rajah,  whose 
orders  and  entreaties  were  alike  ineffectual,  at 
length  said,  "  We  all,  you  and  I,  have  lost  our 
credit ;  let  us  try  whether  the  inhabitants  will 
trust  Mr.  Schwartz."  The  missionary  is  accord- 
ingly empowered  to  make  arrangements  with 
the  people.  No  time  can  be  lost.  The  emaci- 
ated Sepoys  are  falling  down  from  exhaustion 
and  the  streets  are  lined  w^ith  the  dead  every 
morning.'  Such,  however,  is  the  confidence  of 
the  country  people  in  this  man  of  God  that, 
upon  his  mere  promise  to  indemnify  them,  he 
obtains  in  the  course  of  a  day  or  two  a  thou- 
sand oxen  and  all  needed  supplies  of  grain. 
The  fort  is  saved.  The  next  year,  under  simi- 
lar circumstances,  the  same  thing  occurs  again. 
At  another  time,  when  the  oppressed  inhabit- 
ants suspended  cultivation  of  the  soil  and  left 
the  region,  no  promises  of  the  tyrannical  rajah 
could  recall  them.  Schwartz  was  solicited  to 
assure  them  that  at  his  intercession  they  should 
be  treated  kindly,  whereupon  seven  thousand 
came  back  in  one  day.  When  he  exhorts  them 
to  do  their  utmost  they  reply,  "As  you  have 
showed  kindness  to  us  you  shall  not  have  rea- 
son to  repent  it ;  we  intend  to  work  day  and 
night  to  show  our  regard  for  you." 

In    1789    Tuljajee,   failing    of    immediate    de- 

■Note  37. 


192  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

scendants,  adopted  a  relative  (Serfogee '),  ten 
years  of  age,  as  his  successor  in  the  kingdom 
of  Tanjore.  Sending  for  Schwartz  the  rajah 
pointed  to  the  child  and  said :  "  This  is  not  my 
son,  but  yours ;  into  your  hand  I  deliver  him." 
"  I  appoint  you  to  be  guardian ;  I  intend  to  give 
him  over  to  your  care."  The  missionary,  how- 
ever, had  the  good  sense  promptly  to  decline 
such  a  charge,  the  rajah  being  near  his  end, 
though  in  the  personal  welfare  and  education 
of  Serfogee  Schwartz  continued  to  exercise  a 
lively  interest  and  was  recognized  as  guardian. 
Could  there  be  more  decisive  proofs  of  the 
power  of  Christian  character  over  Europeans 
and  natives,  peasants  and  princes  alike  ?  Ulfi- 
las,  missionary  bishop  among  the  Goths  in  the 
fourth  century,  went  more  than  once  as  ambas- 
sador to  Constantinople,  yet  his  political  serv- 
ices were  less  effective  than  those  of  our  hum- 
ble German  missionary  in  India.  The  position 
of  Schwartz  in  that  regard  is  perhaps  without 
parallel,  and  will  probably  never  be  repeated. 
Judson's  place  in  an  embassy  to  the  Burman 
court  was  that  of  translator,  not  of  negotiator. 
But  outside  services  of  such  delicacy  and  re- 
sponsibility should  be  eschewed.  To  be  the 
counselor  of  kings,  to  be  the  confidential 
adviser  of  secular  governments,  must  always 
prove   a   hazardous   experience   on    the    part    of 

^Sarbojee  it  should  read. 


CHRISTIAN    FREDERICK    SCHWARTZ.        193 

men  who  can  never  afford  to  compromise  their 
high  spiritual  function. 

At  the  outset  of  his  missionary  career 
Schwartz  wrote,  "  If  we  should  ever  suffer 
ignominy  and  disgrace  for  the  sake  of  Jesus 
we  are  unworthy  of  so  great  an  honor."  His 
meekness,  like  that  of  many  another  mission- 
ary, was  put  to  the  test  by  the  tongue  of  slan- 
der, but  in  the  end  he  shone  all  the  brighter. 
Possessing  administrative  talent  similar  to  that 
of  John  Wesley  he  had  much  primitive  sim- 
plicity and  self-control.  Kohlhoff,  who  was  as- 
sociated with  him  for  thirty-five  years,  testified 
that  he  had  never  seen  him  angry  or  indig- 
nant, except  when  servants  of  the  Lord  were 
acting  inconsistently  or  timidly.  Then  he  was 
on  fire. 

His  chief  mistake  —  the  mistake,  also,  of  some 
other  German  missionaries  —  was  too  much  leni- 
ency regarding  caste.'  This  institution  is  the 
most   conspicuous  and  most  remarkable  feature 

of    society    in    India.      The    native 

Caste, 
theory  is  that  birth  determines  the 

matter,  that  caste  is  of  divine  appointment. 
It  is  sanctioned  by  the  sacred  books,  and,  be- 
ing an  affair  of  religion,  takes  firm  hold  of  the 


'  C.  V.  Hamaswamy  :  Digest  of  the  Castes  of  India.  Madras, 
1837.  B.  A.  Irving :  Theory  and  Practice  of  Caste.  London, 
1853.  Arthur  J.  Patterson :  Caste  Considered.  London,  1861. 
Edward  W.  Hopkins :  Mutual  Relations  of  the  Four  Castes. 
Leipzig,  1881. 


194  PROTESTANT    MISSIONS. 

Hindu  mind.  With  us  and  elsewhere  differ- 
ences of  rank  are  determined  by  the  course  of 
events  in  human  history.  In  India  these  dif- 
ferences are  deemed  to  be  original  and  consti- 
tutional. Our  tribe  of  Flatheads,  as  well  as 
Chinese  parents,  are  responsible  for  the  respec- 
tive deformities  of  skull  and  feet.  Not  so  with 
the  castes  of  India,  which  exist,  as  the  people 
believe,  by  predetermining  creation.  Accord- 
ingly no  individual  can  rise  from  a  lower  to 
a  higher,  and  those  in  the  lower  are  not  less 
tenacious  of  their  clan  condition  than  those 
above  them.  The  superior  have  a  haughty 
bearing ;  the  inferior  maintain  abject  servility. 
Love  or  fellowship  between  such  is  impracti- 
cable, and  nothing  can  be  more  destructive  of 
Christian  brotherhood — nothing  can  more  effec- 
tually neutralize  the   Golden  Rule. 

An  iron  rigidity  binds  the  caste  man.  Let  an 
incident  illustrate.  A  high  caste  soldier  hav- 
ing fainted  and  fallen  the  military  surgeon  or- 
dered one  of  the  Pariah  attendants  of  the  hos- 
pital to  throw  water  on  him.  In  consequence 
thereof  none  of  his  class  would  afterwards  as- 
sociate with  him,  because  his  rank  had  thus, 
though  involuntarily,  been  forfeited.  Hence  he 
soon  committed  suicide.'  This  amazing  scrupu- 
losity has  respect,  for  instance,  to  food.  If 
President  Grant  or  the   Prince  of  Wales  when 


^New  India,  p.  157. 


CHRISTIAN   FREDERICK   SCHWARTZ.         195 

in  India  had  touched  the  humblest  and  hungri- 
est Hindu's  boiled  rice  he  would  have  thrown 
it  away  as  unclean.  Another  occurrence  will 
show  how  relentless  caste  can  be.  The  Rev. 
Mr.  Hoole  relates  that  while  dining  one  day  at 
the  mission  house  in  Madras,  a  woman,  much 
worn  by  hunger  and  fatigue,  came  opposite  the 
door  and  lowered  from  her  back  a  tall  lad, 
who  was  reduced  to  a  skeleton  and  unable  to 
stand  alone.  Help  was  implored.  The  mission- 
ary at  once  ordered  rice  and  curry  to  be  taken 
from  the  table  to  them,  but  the  woman  rejected 
the  food  for  herself  and  her  famishing  boy,  be- 
cause it  was  against  the  rule  of  her  caste  to 
eat  anything  cooked  or  touched  by  Europeans.' 
Schwartz  remained  single.  It  was  with  him 
a  matter  of  principle  in  his  circumstances,  upon 
the  ground  suggested  by  the  apostle  Paul  in 
the  seventh  chapter  of  First  Corinthians,  and 
he   continued   strongly  in  favor   of   celibacy  on 

the  part  of  missionaries  during  the 

T  i?     ii     •       Ti«  Celibacy, 

earlier    years    oi    their    lite    among 

the  heathen.  This  suggests  an  embarrassing 
incident,  which  revealed  the  possibilities  of  in- 
discretion on  the  part  of  persons  meddling  with 
matrimonial  affairs  which  do  not  concern  them. 
A  ship  chaplain  had  been  requested  by  a  friend 
of  the  elder  Kohlhoff,  then  a  widower,  to  nego- 


'  Hoole,   Elijah :    Madras,   Mysore,   and    the    South    of  India. 
Second  edition.     London,  1844.    P.  314. 


196  PROTESTANT    MISSIONS. 

tiate  in  Germany  for  some  one  to  go  out  and 
complete  his  domestic  establishment.  The  offi- 
cious man  announced  that  he  had  a  commis- 
sion from  the  missionaries  indefinitely  to  pro- 
cure wives  for  them.  In  consequence  of  these 
representations  two  young  women  sailed  for 
Tranquebar,  whom  the  chaplain  had  mentally 
designated  to  be  companions  for  Kohlhoff  and 
Schwartz,  and  that,  too,  although  the  latter 
never  intimated  a  desire  for  such  an  arrange- 
ment, much  less  had  authorized  this  matrimo- 
nial broker  to  act  as  his  agent.  The  good 
man  felt  constrained  to  make  the  most  solemn 
written  asseveration  that  the  proceeding  was 
entirely  without  his  sanction,  and  that  even  if 
the  young  woman  in  question  were  a  suitable 
person  —  it  was  perfectly  evident  she  was  not 
—  he  could  never  depart  from  his  avowed  pur- 
pose and  was  free  from  all  responsibility  in 
the  matter. 

Schwartz  experienced  signal  preservations. 
Once  when  rising  he  found  a  very  poisonous 
snake  on  the  spot  where  he  had  been  lying. 
When  the  powder  magazine  blew  up  at  Trich- 
inopoly  (1772)  he  was  in  imminent  peril,  but 
neither  he  nor  any  of  his  Christian  communit}^ 
suffered  injury.  He  had  for  the  most  part 
excellent  health.  He  was  a  German  oak  in 
the    land    of   palms.'      Late    in    life    he    wrote : 


'  Heinrich  von  Mertz,  in  Piper's  Zeuyen  der  Warheit,  IV,  p. 


CHRISTIAN    FREDERICK    SCHWARTZ.        197 

"Though  I  am  now  in  the  sixty-ninth  year  of 
my  age  I  am  still  able  to  perform  the  ordinary 
functions  of  my  office.  Of  sickness  I  know 
little  or  nothing."  Marshall,  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic reviler  of  Protestant  missionaries,  says  of 
Schwartz,  "  What  he  lacked  was  precisely  that 
treasure  of  which  he  never  knew  his  need 
—  the  gift  of  divine  faith  and  the  mission 
which  God  has  resolved  to  bestow  only  on 
his    church." '      God    in   his  sovereign   goodness 

imparted   to   him   true    Scriptural 

n  .,^  1  ,  1  .    .  Devotedness. 

laith  —  clear,  strong,  and  consist- 
ent—  to  an  unusual  degree,  preserving  him 
from  the  superstitions,  ritualism,  and  gross 
errors  of  Romanism,  and  enabling  him  to  wit- 
ness a  good  confession  to  the  end.  The  faith- 
ful man  remained  on  the  field  without  once 
revisiting  his  fatherland  or  the  country  which 
for  many  years  had  sustained  him.  He  was 
earnestly  industrious.  During  the  first  period 
of  his  life  in  India  he  held  a  Tamil  service 
every  Sabbath  morning  early,  one  in  English 
at  ten  o'clock  in  the  forenoon,  besides  a  Bible 
exercise  in  the  evening,  followed  by  a  prayer 
meeting.  The  secular  portion  of  the  week  was 
fully  occupied,  so  much  so  that  he  often  found 
no  time  for  study  except  in  the  night. 

He   loved   his   work.      Toward    the    close    of 


•  Christian  Missions,  I,  p.  282. 


198  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

life  he  exclaimed  (1796)  :  "  Ebenezer,  hitherto 
hath  the  Lord  helped  me !  Today  I  entered 
upon  my  seventy-first  year.  O,  the  riches  of 
his  grace,  compassion,  and  forbearance  which  I 
have  experienced  during  seventy  years!  Praise, 
honor,  and  adoration  are  due  to  a  gracious 
God,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  for  the 
numerous  proofs  of  his  abounding  grace ! " 
Happy,  thrice  happy  old  man ! 

The  habits  of  our  missionary,  as  might  natu- 
rally be  inferred,  were  simple  and  inexpensive. 
A  small  apartment  and  a  dish  of  rice  satisfied 
him,  while  no  discernible  elements  of  asceticism 
appeared.  With  a  truly  self-deny- 
ing spirit  he  acted  as  almoner  and 
benefactor  to  all  in  times  of  bloodshed  and 
famine ;  and  we  are  reminded  of  the  good 
deeds  of  our  own  Calhoun  amidst  the  massa- 
cres of  Mount  Lebanon,  the  kind  ofiices  of  our 
missionaries  after  the  earthquake  in  Eastern 
Turkey  a  few  years  ago,  their  exhausting  serv- 
ices in  behalf  of  victims  of  Turkish  cruelty  in 
Bulgaria,  as  well  as  during  famines  in  Asia 
Minor,  India,  and  China.  Yes,  as  a  class  mis- 
sionaries are  preeminently  philanthropic,  and 
nobly  deny  themselves  out  of  regard  to  the 
name  of  their  Master.  Such  a  one  was 
Schwartz.  English  residents  in  Southern  India 
were  fully  convinced  of  this.  At  one  time, 
owing  to  a  general  distress  resulting   from  the 


CHRISTIAN   FREDERICK   SCHWARTZ.         199 

ravages  of  war,  he  forbore  to  draw  from  gov- 
ernment his  pay  as  chaplain.  Repeatedly  did 
he  refuse  pay  tendered  for  special  services. 
Starting  on  his  return  journey  from  Hyder  Ali 
Schwartz  found  three  hundred  rupees  in  his 
vehicle,  which  he  immediately  set  apart  for 
purposes  of  charity.  "  Only  let  money  be 
oflFered  to  any  one,"  say  the  Brahmans,  "and  all 
his  good  resolutions  vanish ; "  yet  so  convinced 
Avere  even  the  natives  of  this  man's  complete 
integrity  that  when  the  Rajah  of  Tanjore  sent 
for  him  to  secure  his  mediation  he  said  to 
Schwartz,  "  Padre,  I  have  confidence  in  you, 
because  you  are  indifferent  to  money;"  and 
an  English  oflScer  declares,  in  a  published  work 
on  India,'  "The  intelligence  and  uprightness 
of  this  blameless  missionary  have  rescued  the 
European  character  from  the  imputation  of 
universal   corruption." 

Schwartz  lived  seventy-two  years,  forty-eight 
of  which  were  devoted  to  evangelistic  labor  in 
India.  He  took  no  part  of  that  long  period  to 
visit  Europe,  nor  for  that  purpose  did  Kier- 
nander  take  any  part  of  his  fifty- 
nine  years  in  India.  The  popular  o"&«vi  y. 
impression  has  been  that  the  climate  of  that 
country  is  not  favorable  to  longevity  among 
Europeans.  So  far,  however,  as  German  mis- 
sionaries  are   concerned   vital   statistics   present 

'  Colonel  Fullerton,  in  his   Views  of  English  Interest  in  India, 


200  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

a  rare  showing.  Four  of  them  (Hiittemann,' 
Cnoll,  Breithaupt,  Gericke)  were  able  to  serve 
from  thirt}^  to  forty  years ;  six  of  them  (Zeg- 
lin,  Pohle,  John,  Klein,  Cammerer,  Schwartz) 
from  forty  to  fifty  years ;  and  five  of  them 
(Fabricius,  J.  B.  Kohlhoff,  J.  C.  Kohlhoff,  Kier- 
nander,  Rottler)  from  fifty  to  sixty  years.  Of 
these  the  elder  Kohlhoff  reached  seventy-nine 
years  of  age,  Fabricius  eighty,^  Kohlhoff  junior 
eighty-two,  Rottler  eighty-seven,  and  Kiernari- 
der  eighty-eight.  Among  American  mission- 
aries in  the  same  country  Ballantine  labored 
thirty  years,  Munger  thirty-four,  John  Scudder 
thirty-six,  Poor  thirty-nine,  Meigs  forty-one, 
Winslow  forty-four,  and   Spaulding  fifty-three. 

During  the  last  year  of  life  Schwartz's 
strength  was  evidently  failing.  Four  months 
of  suffering  and  of  special  grace  were  ap- 
pointed him  at  the  close.  Favorite  liymns 
were  sung  in  his  room,  his  own 
^^  '  voice  often  joining.  On  the  thir- 
teenth of  February  (1798)  native  assistants 
sang  the  last  stanza  of  Gerhardt's  best-known 
hymn,   0  Haupt  voll  Blut  und   Wunden: 

"  Be  near  me  when  I'm  dying ; 
O,  show  thy  cross  to  me  ! 
And  for  my  succor  flying, 

Come,  Lord,  and  set  me  free!" 


'  Grimfield's   Sketches   of  Danish   Missions   eyerywhere    gives 
this  as  Hiifferman  (pp.  80-112). 
^Note  38. 


CHKISTIAN   FEEDERICK   SCHWARTZ.         201 

Serfogee,  the  rajah,  visited  him  in  his  last 
sickness,  manifesting  the  most  tender  regard. 
At  the  funeral  the  prince  wept  freely  as  he 
gazed  upon  the  face  of  so  revered  a  friend, 
and  he  afterwards  erected  a  monument  to  "the 
memory  of  Father  Schwartz,"  which  was  exe- 
cuted by  the  celebrated  sculptor,  Flaxman. 
On  the  monument  the  rajah  is  represented  as 
grasping  the  hand  of  the  dying  missionary  and 
receiving  his  benediction.  The  traveler  will 
find  it  in  the  old  garrison  church,  no  longer 
used,  at  Tanjore.' 

But  the  most  impressive  monuments  to  our 
missionary  are  the  results  of  his  labor.  At 
and  near  Trichinopoly  alone  were  three  thou- 
sand reputed  converts  gathered  in  through  the 
agency  of  this  faithful  man.  Bishop  Heber 
estimates  the  number  in  the  whole  district  at 
between  six  and  seven  thousand.  It  is  a  nota- 
ble circumstance  that  while  religious  decline 
was  going  on  in  his  native  country  —  pastors 
and  people  not  a  few  settling  down  into  spirit- 
ual torpor,  if  not  giving  themselves  over  to 
avowed  rationalism — this  man  in  a  far-off  land 
of  heathenism  should  be  toiling  indefatigably 
and  successfully  to  the  last,  respected  by  his 
employers  and  employees,  his  colleagues  and 
pupils,  by  Germans  and  Danes,  by  princes  and 
Pariahs,   by    Christians,   heathens,   and    Moham- 

'  Note  39. 


202  PBOTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

medans.  Seldom  has  there  been  an  instance  of 
a  man  securing  the  respect  of  parties  so  unlike 
—  military  officers  and  civilians  in  the  English 
service,  a  sanguinary  and  suspicious  Oriental 
tyrant,  as  well  as  that  tyrant's  outraged  and 
timid  subjects. 

"They  that  be  wise  shall  shine  as  the  bright- 
ness of  the  firmament,  and  they  that  turn  many 
to  righteousness  as  the  stars  forever  and  ever." 
The  same  year  that  this  devoted  missionary  fin- 
ished his  course  a  countryman  of  his,  the  as- 
tronomer royal  of  England,  discovered  four  new 
satellites  belonging  to  the  Georgium  Sidus.  On 
the  scale  of  celestial  estimates  whose  fame  will 
be  most  enduring  —  that  of  the  titled  Sir  Wil- 
liam Herschel  or  the  plain  Christian  Frederick 
Schwartz  ? 


IX 

CRITIQUE    UPON    THE    MISSION 


Our  last  chapter  was  devoted  to  Christian 
Frederick  Schwartz,  the  representative  German 
missionary,  more  widely  known  than  any  other 
of  the  eighteenth  century  and  who  ranks  with 
Eliot,  Brainerd,  Zeisberger,  and  Carey.  When 
the  mission  at  Trichinopoly  was  established 
(1767)  he  passed,  as  before  mentioned,  into  the 
employ  of  the  English  Society  for  Promoting 
Christian  Knowledge,  and  his  official  connection 
with  the  Danish  work  and  with  Tranquebar 
ceased.  It  seemed,  however,  due  to  him  and 
to  the  demands  of  general  narrative  that  the 
survey  of  his  life  should  not  be  arrested  at 
that  point. 

The  lines  of  demarcation  between  the  several 
fields  of  evangelistic  work  in  the  peninsula  and 
between  the  responsibilities  of  employees  were 
not  at  that  period  well  defined.  At  times  only 
this  is  clear  —  that  the  relations  of  Christian  la- 
borers in  Southern  India  to  patrons  in  Europe 


204  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

were  vague  and  somewhat  fluctuating.  Most 
writers  appear  not  to  have  kept  in  mind  the 
exact  sphere  of  the  Danish  mission ;  but,  in 
treating  the  history  of  evangelistic  work  in  the 
Madras    Presidency,    have    spoken    of    the    later 

services  of  men   who   had   left   the 
e  a  ions      Tranquebar   field   as    if   they    were 

still  in  their  old  connection.  It 
is  no  unusual  thing  for  biography  to  leave 
us  with  some  historical  misconceptions.  The 
strictly  Danish  work  in  the  southern  peninsula 
was  limited  to  Tranquebar  and  its  immediate 
neighborhood.  It  continued  about  one  hun- 
dred and  forty  years.  In  1845  the  Danish  pos- 
session (Tranquebar)  was  ceded  to  the  English 
East  India  Company,  and  the  mission  has  now 
for  a  long  time  been  conducted  by  the  Dres- 
den-Leipzig Society. 

The  death  of  Schwartz  marks  an  epoch  in 
the  course  of  Protestant  missions  in  that  part 
of  India.  Thence  onward  decay  became  more 
and  more  evident.  After  the  date  of  his  de- 
cease    only    five     missionaries     of     the     Danish 

society   went   to    India.      While    at 

that  period  the  religious  condition 
of  India  was  improving,  such  improvement  had 
hardly  begun  in  Germany,  and  as  is  Germany 
such  substantially  is  Denmark.  During  the 
great  spiritual  decline  of  those  countries  it 
could   not   be   expected   that    their    missionaries 


CRITIQUE   UPON    THE   MISSION.  205 

would  wholly  escape  the  contagious  torpor.  As 
early  as  1793  Christian  Frederick  John  wrote 
home  from  Tranquebar,  "A  new  honest  mis- 
sionary would  be  a  great  help  to  us,  but  if  no 
suitable  man  can  be  found  it  is  better  for  us 
to  die  out."  The  mission  was  not  harmonious 
within  itself'  nor  on  pleasant  terms  with  the 
local  government.  Denmark  having  become  in- 
volved in  the  general  European  war  then  rag- 
ing her  East  India  possessions  were  exposed  to 
attack.  Tranquebar  was  captured  by  the  Eng- 
lish (1801),  and  remittances  from  home  were 
interrupted.  The  restoration  of  the  place  a 
year  later  to  Denmark  did  not  restore  pros- 
perity to  the  mission.  Various  concurrent 
causes  led  to  a  continued  abatement  of  evan- 
gelistic work,  from  which  there  was  never  more 
than  a  partial  recovery.-  The  sentiment  of 
Danish  residents,  some  of  whom  had  become 
infected  with  French  infidelity,  was,  of  course, 
adverse  to  attempts  at  converting  the  heathen. 
The  local  government  proposed  that  the  mis- 
sion should  cease  as  an  institution  for  that 
purpose,  and  in  1825  a  royal  rescript,  placing 
it  on  a  new  footing,  ordained  that  the  pastor- 
ate of  Zion  Church  in  Tranquebar  and  the 
office  of  first  missionary  be  united.  It  will  in- 
dicate  to   what  a   low   level    Danish    sentiment 


'Note  40. 
^Note  41. 


206  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

had  sunk,  that  the  order  should  contain  a  dec- 
laration such  as  this,  "  The  spiritual  pastors 
who  bear  the  name  '  missionary '  in  Tranquebar 
are  to  make  effort  for  the  conversion  of  the 
heathen  only  where  the  moral  character  of 
the  persons  seems  to  call  for  it,  but  they  are 
not  to  expect  any  money  to  be  spent  on  the 
extension  of  Christianity."  What  but  extinc- 
tion of  all  missionary  work  could  be  looked 
for  where  such  views  prevailed? 

One  sad  experience  of  the  Christian  explorer 
is  to  find  the  tombstones  of  evangelical  en- 
terprises, whether  on  the  site  of  the  seven 
churches  of  Asia,  of  the  once  flourishing 
churches  in  Northern  Africa,  or  of  missions 
like  that  at  Tranquebar.  Deplorable  decay 
has  been  spoken  of.  May  not  an 
ecay  exaggerated   impression   have  been 

Lamentable.  mi  p 

made?  The  facts  of  the  case, 
as  they  lie  on  the  surface,  appear  to  admit 
of  no  other  representation.  Testimonies  from 
without  concur.'  Messrs.  Tyerman  and  Ben- 
net,  a  deputation  from  the  London  Missionary 
Society,  in  their  Journal"-  (1821-1829),  say  of 
Tanjore  that  no  vital  religion  was  to  be  found 
in  any  of  the  native  priests  and  people ;  that 
the  cankerworm  of  caste  had  destroyed  every- 
thing that  resembles  true  religion,  only  a  form 

'Note  42. 

'Yo\.  II,  pp.  462-464. 


CRITIQUE   UPON  THE   IVnSSION.  207 

being  left;  and  that  the  Tranquebar  Mission 
was  in  the  same  sad  condition.  Ten  years 
later  (1837)  Dr.  Howard  Malcolm,  who  visited 
the  American  Baptist  missions  in  the  East, 
though  passing  near  Tranquebar,  did  not  deem 
it  worth  while  to  stop  —  it  being  the  current 
opinion  of  competent  judges  then  in  Southern 
India  that  there  was  almost  no  visible  effect 
of  missionary  labor  remaining  there.'  "As  to 
Schwartz's  people  in  Tanjore,"  says  Lord  Ma- 
caulay*  (1834),  "the}^  are  a  perfect  scandal  to 
the  religion  they  profess."  We  do  not  account 
Thomas  Babington  Macaulay  the  most  compe- 
tent witness  concerning  the  religious  character 
of  native  Christians  in  India;  3'et,  with  a  meas- 
ure of  exaggeration,  not  infrequent  on  his  part, 
he  reflects  the  average  sentiment  of  English 
residents  then  on  the  ground. 

It  becomes  a  grave  question,  What  led  to 
such  an  apparent  failure  at  last  ?  So  far  as 
the  particular  responsibility  of  Schwartz  is  con- 
cerned it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  at  the 
period  last  referred  to  he  had  been  in  his 
grave  more  than  thirty  years.  It  should  also 
be  remembered  that  in  the  earlier  stages  of 
the  Tranquebar  Mission  there  was  much  more 
evangelical  earnestness  and  fidelity  than  in  the 
later   stages.      Still    from    the    first,    as    in    the 


'Malcolm's  Travels,  II,  pp.  00-62. 

-  Life  and  Letters  of  Lord  Macaulay,  \,  pp.  332,  333. 


208  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

early  Dutch  missions,  there  was  this  mischie- 
vous mistake  —  that  evidence  of  regeneration 
need  not  be  required  of  those  who  were  ad- 
mitted to  Christian  ordinances ;  that  these  may 
be  administered  to  persons  who  profess  only  a 
mental  assent  to  the  historical  facts  and  the 
truths  of  Christianity,  about  which,  however, 
candidates  do  not  need  to  know  very  much. 
The  notion  was  entertained  that  natives  once 
baptized  would  be  more  likely  to  desire  further 
Christian  instruction  and  would  sooner  or  later 

become    intelligent    converts.      In 
Superficiality.  i     j.       j.u  t  -^ 

regard    to   the    ordinances   it  was 

held  that  they  have  mystical  efficacy  for  accom- 
plishing spiritual  results;  hence  that  the  church 
need  not  attempt  to  discriminate  carefully  be- 
tween the  mere  nominal  Christian  and  the  one 
born  again.  Such  a  theory  is  sufficiently  dan- 
gerous in  well-educated  Christian  communities ; 
how  much  more  among  an  ignorant  people, 
almost  incapable  of  conceiving  what  pure  spir- 
itual religion  is,  and  to  whom  temporal  induce- 
ments are  held  out  for  the  j^i'ofession  of  Chris- 
tianity !  A  majority  of  the  converts  were  from 
inferior  classes  —  mere  outcasts  and  slaves.  Al- 
most universally  aboriginal  tribes  and  lower 
castes  are  the  most  hospitable  toward  the  gos- 
pel, and  those  are  the  classes  among  which 
throughout  India,  to  the  present  time,  the  gos- 
pel  has   had  greatest   success.     Low  castes  and 


CRITIQUE   UPON   THE   MISSION.  209 

outcasts  furnish  not  less  than  four  fifths  of  all 
converts.'  Natives  in  such  social  position  could 
hardly  fail  to  look  upon  the  acceptance  of  the 
faith  and  forms  of  their  rulers  as  likely  to 
prove  advantageous  in  secular  respects ;  hence 
the  greatest  caution  was  needed  to  guard 
against  mercenary  motives.  But  as  temporal 
aid  was  afforded  to  converts  there  would  natu- 
rally be  awakened  in  the  minds  of  persons 
looking  on  a  suspicion  that  they  were  virtually 
bought,  and  the  epithet  "  Shilling  Christians " 
gained  currency.  Supplies  ceasing,  converts 
fell  away.  The  missionaries  were  obliged  to 
confess  that  many  of  the  baptized  failed  to 
give  evidence  of  any  moral  reformation.^  The 
tour  of  Gericke,  when  he  visited  (1802)  the 
districts  lying  south  toward  Cape  Comorin  — 
though  not  belonging  himself  to  Tranquebar 
—  illustrates  the  unwise  readiness,  especially  of 
later  German  missionaries,  to  administer  the 
rite  of  baptism.  The  people  had  been  suffering 
much  from  political  disturbances  and  were  en- 
tertaining unwarranted  hopes  of  amelioration 
from  a  change  of  religion.  Accordingly  whole 
villages  demolished  their  idols,  turned  their 
temples  into  churches,  and  received  baptism  — 
scores  upon  scores  in  a  day  —  at  the  tourist's 
hands.      During    that    journey    the    good    man, 


'Note  43. 
^'Note  44. 


210  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

zealous  and  credulous,  baptized  thirteen  hun- 
dred, and  immediately  afterwards  the  native 
teachers  baptized  two  thousand  and  seven  hun- 
dred more.  Most  of  them,  however,  had  but 
little  knowledge  of  what  the  Christian  religion 
is,  and  had  still  less  of  its  spirit.  As  in  mili- 
tary invasions,  so  in  missionary  operations  it  is 
much  easier  to  overrun  than  to  hold  a  wide 
extent  of  territory.  At  Tranquebar  converts 
were  taught  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments, together  with  the  words  of  the  in- 
stitution of  both  sacraments,  and  many  of  them 
appear  to  have  given  unquestionable  evidence 
of  conversion.  Some  of  them  stood  the  test 
of  persecution ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  too 
many  seem  never  to  have  advanced  beyond  a 
mere  outward  rite.  Our  satisfaction,  then,  at 
statistical  results  suffers  abatement  when  we 
read  that  by  the  first  jubilee  of  this  mission 
(1756)  eleven  thousand  persons  had  embraced 
the  gospel,  and  that  at  the  close  of  a  hundred 
years  perhaps  fifty  thousand  had  received  bap- 
tism. As  a  whole  they  bore  a  different  char- 
acter from  more  recent  native  Christians  of 
Northern  India,  for  instance,  who,  in  the  main, 
stood  firm  during  the  mutiny  of  1857. 

Another  mistake  of  the  Danish  mission  in 
India  was  an  unauthorized  toleration  of  caste 
among  the  converts.  This  subject  was  alluded 
to   in   our   last   lecture.      We   grant   that   it   is 


CRITIQUE   UPON   THE   MISSION.  211 

one  of  delicacy  and  difficulty,  that  something 
must  be  conceded  to  the  inexperience  of  early 
missionaries.  Yet  even  after  thirty  years'  ac- 
quaintance with  this  evil  the  mission  wrote,  in 
regard  to  their  useful  and  excellent  catechist, 
Rajanaiken,  "  We  should  greatly  hesitate  to 
have  the  Lord's  Supper  administered,  by  him, 
lest  it  should  diminish  the  regard  of  Christians 
of  a  higher  caste  for  that  sacrament  itself." 
It  needs  but  a  short  acquaintance  with  such 
a  bane  of  social  life  to  learn  its  essential  an- 
tagonism   to    the    spirit    of    Christ. 

...  .  Caste 

Surely  an  institution  which  teaches 

that  one  part  of  a  community  belongs  to  a 
superior  race ;  that  Pariahs  are  born  to  be 
slaves ;  that  the  two  classes  may  not  live  in 
the  same  street,  eat  from  the  same  vessel,  drink 
from  the  same  cup  —  even  the  sacramental  cup 
—  or  occupy  the  same  seats  in  the  house  of 
God ;  which  forbids  intermarriages  between  the 
two  castes;  which  insists  upon  separate  sections 
in  the  burial  ground ;  which  forbids  a  high 
caste  congregation  to  receive  a  low  caste  re- 
ligious teacher;  and  would  persuade  the  mis- 
sionary clergyman  to  partake  of  the  sacred 
supper  last,  that  none  of  the  communicants 
might  be  contaminated  —  such  an  institution 
needs  no  long  debate  to  determine  whether  it 
shall  be  tolerated  in  the  Christian  Church. 
By   condoning    this   mischievous   element   nomi- 


212  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

nal  conversions  were  multiplied,  but  Christian- 
ity was  dishonored.  Dr.  C.  F.  John,  one  of 
the  later  missionaries  at  Tranquebar,  greatly- 
distressed  by  this  antichristian  practice,  deter- 
mined to  put  an  end  to  such  odious  distinc- 
tions—  at  least  as  relates  to  the  Lord's  Table 
and  so  far  as  his  responsibility  was  concerned. 
He  melted  into  one  the  two  cups  that  were 
used,  and  thus  for  once  settled  that  matter. 
The  excellent  Schwartz  erred  with  others  in 
regard  to  caste.  If  this  demon  had  been  exor- 
cised at  the  outset  the  subsequent  history  of 
Southern  India  would  have  been  materially  dif- 
ferent. At  present  the  only  German  society 
known  to  wink  at  this  deformity  is  the  Lu- 
theran Society  of  Leipzig,  which  is  in  sympa- 
thy with  the  High  Church  element  in  England. 
That  society's  agents  have  little  fellowship  with 
other  missionaries  and  do  not  formally  join  in 
conferences.  They  are  significantly  exclusive, 
and  often  set  territorial  comity  at  defiance, 
introducing  schools  and  catechists  into  fields 
long  occupied  by  evangelical  laborers.  Litur- 
gical and  sacramentarian  bodies  seem  somewhat 
generally  to  entertain  the  thought  that  it  is 
tlieir  sphere,  letting  others  undertake  initial 
drudgery  and  hardships,  to  come  in  later  and 
gather  the  fruits  into  their  sectarian  garner. 
Conservative  of  abuses,  and  carrying  on  a  su- 
perficial  system    of  proselytism,   they   render  it 


CRITIQUE   tJPOK   THE  MISSION.  213 

difficult  for  neighboring  missions  to  maintain 
proper  discipline  in  their  churches.  It  should 
be  added  that  native  Roman  Catholics  also 
kept  up  an  observance  of  caste  as  rigidly  as 
the  heathen.  The  Vaisya,  with  the  gold  ring, 
embroidered  dress,  and  cashmere  turban,  puffed 
up  with  pride  of  birth,  was  invited  to  sit  in 
the  high  places  of  the  church ;  while  the  poor 
Christian  Pariah  was  bidden  to  stand  in  the 
doorway,  taking  care  that  he  should  by  no 
means  touch  with  his  unclean  body  the  gar- 
ments of  his  lioly  superior  ! ' 

It  was  a  further  mistake  that  the  mission 
did  not  ordain  more  native  pastors.  For  many 
years  there  were  none.  The  schools  had  been 
looked  to  as  nurseries  for  the  ministry,  but 
therein  they  failed,  and  this  is  by  no  means  a 
solitary  instance  of  the  kind.  Catechists  were 
to  some  extent  supplied  by  the 
Tranquebar    schools,  yet    very    few  ^^'^^ 

natives  came  forward  to  whom  the 
missionaries  deemed  it  fitting  to  intrust  the 
sacred  office.  Suitable  men  evidently  were  not 
numerous,  and  when  permission  to  ordain  na- 
tives was  at  length  asked  from  the  home  author- 
ities it  could  be  obtained  only  after  long  delay. 
In  the  Tranquebar  Mission  proper  only  half  a 
dozen — if  so  many — natives  received  ordina- 
tion during   a  period  of   a  century  and   a   half. 

'Mullen's  Missiotis  in  Southern  India,  p.  77. 


214  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

Not  till  towards  half  a  century  since  was  the 
importance  of  establishing  local  churches  and  a 
native  pastorate  duly  appreciated  among  the 
various  missions  of  India,  but  within  the  period 
named  a  noteworthy  development  in  that  direc- 
tion has  taken  place.  It  began  among  the  mis- 
sions of  the  American  Board  (1855),  and  it 
marks  an  epoch  in  foreign  evangelistic  work. 
The  results,  as  seen  in  the  extent  to  which 
native  Christians,  and  especially  their  preachers, 
rise  from  the  condition  of  pupilage,  acquiring 
strength  and  independence  of  character,  are 
truly   encouraging. 

Disproportionate  outlay  upon  schools  was  an- 
other mistake.  The  Germans  are  almost  consti- 
tutionally educators,  and  the  Lutheran  Church 
is  eminently  an  educating  church.  It  was  natu- 
ral that  these  experimenting  missionaries  should 
early  devote  themselves  to  gathering  schools. 
We  find  Ziegenbalg  writing  in 
1706:  "Truly  the  training  up  of 
children  will  be  of  the  greatest  consequence 
in  this  aifair,  if  we  were  but  able  to  purchase 
and  maintain  a  good  many  of  them."  "We 
must  buy  such  children,  sometimes  at  a  high 
price,  from  their  parents." '  His  successors  la- 
bored largely  in  the  same  line  —  not,  indeed, 
of  purchasing   pupils,  but   of  securing  them   at 


'Taylor's   Protestant   Missions   at   Madras.      Introduction,  pp. 
iv,  V. 


CRITIQUE   UPON   THE   MISSION.  215 

all  events.  They  looked  to  this  source  for 
an  effective  Christian  element,  but  the  hope 
proved  fallacious ;  and  so  it  is  always  liable  to 
do  if  the  boarding  school  displaces  an  earnest 
oral  publication  of  the  gospel.  When  the  mis- 
sionary merges  himself  into  the  schoolmaster, 
when  touring  is  wholly  relinquished  for  the 
more  comfortable  routine  of  pedagogy — then 
aggression  and  spiritual  advance,  present  and 
prospective  alike,  may  be  expected  to  suffer. 
Decline  had  proceeded  far  in  this  mission  when 
Dr.  John  opened  his  school  for  Europeans  in- 
stead of  native  Tamulians,  and  when  (1824) 
the  local  government  proposed  that  mission 
schools  should  cease  altogether  as  an  institu- 
tion for  securing  converts  and  that  mission- 
aries should  give  themselves  merely  to  incul- 
cating useful  knowledge. 

It  is  almost  a  corollary  that  excessive  inter- 
est was  felt  in  matters  of  science.  Quite  possi- 
bly in  our  day,  too,  a  disproportionate  value 
may  be  placed  on  the  incidental  benefits  of 
Christian  missions ;  and  mission- 
aries  may   sometimes   be  beguiled      Subordinate 

"^  -  -.      °  Pursuits. 

mto  an  undue  expenditure  of 
strength  on  the  auxiliary  studies  of  lexicogra- 
phy, mythology,  and  the  like.  Works  have 
come  from  such  pens  so  elaborate  as  to  be 
read  by  heathen  Hindus  simply  for  the  pur- 
pose of   becoming   better   acquainted  with  their 


216  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

own  systems.  Rottler's  collection  in  botany, 
John's  collection  in  conchology,  and  Klein's 
collection  in  ornithology  and  entomology  be- 
came famous.  Eight  learned  societies  in  Eu- 
rope elected  these  men  members.  In  the  year 
1795  Messrs.  John  and  Rottler  received,  as  an 
acknowledgment  of  their  high  attainments  and 
valuable  contributions  to  natural  history,  the 
honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Physical  Sci- 
ences. When  such  side  studies  are  carried  on 
simply  as  a  recreation  it  may  be  well ;  v/hen 
they  trench  upon  time  and  interest  which 
should  be  consecrated  to  immediate  Christian 
work  their  results  are  rather  a  reflection  than 
an  encomium  on  the  missionary.  If  Paul  had 
left  behind  him  immortal  treatises  on  the  Greek 
language,  poetry,  and  philosophy,  or  on  Roman 
jurisprudence,  would  he  not  have  been  obliged 
to  expunge  passages  from  his  inspired  writings 
which  the  world  cannot  afford  to  lose,  and 
which  would  be  a  greater  loss  than  the  loss  of 
the  most  elaborate  scientific  works  ever  pro- 
duced? "For  I  am  determined  not  to  know 
anything  among  you  save  JesUs  Christ  and  him 
crucified;"  "Yea,  doubtless,  and  I  count  all 
things  but  loss  for  the  excellency  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  Jesus  Christ  my  Lord." 

The  mission  encountered  great  obstacles,  some 
of  them  peculiar  to  itself,  for  which  it  was  not 
responsible.     These  related  in  part  to  the  period 


CKITIQUE    UPON   THE   MISSION.  217 

and  the  countiy.  For  a  considerable  time  there 
were  distnrbances  and  violence.  One  native 
prince  after  another  would  claim  sovereignty 
over  the  region.  Hyder  Ali,  with  a  hundred 
thousand  men,  sweeps  down  the  Carnatic  like 
a  tornado,  leaving  ruin  in  his  track.  Every 
European  war  was  attended  by  an  Indian  out- 
break, just  as  an  eruption  of  Etna  is  attended 
by  simultaneous  activity  among  volcanoes  in 
the  East.  Now  a  French  fleet,  and  now  an 
English,  appear  off  the  coast.  Missionary  oper- 
ations,  as    well    as    supplies    from 

Europe,    are     impeded,    sometimes  °  **\" 

'-  ,  Disorder. 

suspended.  Famine,  that  twin  de- 
mon of  war,  makes  its  appearance.  In  1782 
such  destitution  prevailed  in  this  small  Dan- 
ish territory  alone  that  ten  thousand  perished. 
Numbers  dying  daily  in  the  streets  of  Tran- 
quebar  were  left  to  be  buried  at  public  ex- 
pense. When  the  quiet  pursuits  of  husbandry 
are  interrupted,  even  in  time  of  peace,  any 
country  like  Southern  India,  where  agriculture 
depends  upon  irrigation,  will  suffer  from  famine. 
Whenever  the  gospel  takes  effect  among  the 
lieathen  persecution  usually  ensues.  It  has  been 
so  from  the  first  in  Hindustan.  It  is  so  today, 
though  now  the  consolidation  of  English  power 
prevents,  in  some  good  measure,  those  more 
open  and  flagrant  acts  of  cruelty  once  so  com- 
mon.     If    the    missionaries    were    harassed    bj 


218  PROTESTANT    MISSIONS. 

their   OAvn   government,  what    must    have    been 

the     condition     of     converts     under     tyrannical 

native    rule?      Heathen     authorities    could    not 

be    relied    upon    to    protect    converts    from    the 

Roman   Catholics.     Ecclesiastics  were  sent  with 

an  express  charge   from    the  pope  to   "root  out 

the    Protestants    from    Tranquebar,"    and    they 

were  only  too  true  to  their  commission.     Take 

a    specimen.      Rajanaiken,    a   faithful    catechist, 

who    had    been     converted     from     the    Romish 

faith,    joined     the     evangelical    church     (1728), 

but  it  cost  the  father  his  life.     A 
Persecution* 

number    of    armed    papists     made 

an  attack,  and  while  the  old  man  was  endeav- 
oring to  defend  his  youngest  son  from  the 
murderers  he  himself  sank  under  their  blows 
and  died  two  hours  afterwards.  His  other  sons 
exposed  the  corpse  at  the  gate  of  the  town, 
hoping  to  attract  attention,  but  they  had  no 
money  to  give ;  hence  could  obtain  no  justice. 
The  assassins  afterwards  confessed  that  they 
acted  upon  the  instigation  of  priests,  who 
offered  a  reward  in  heaven  to  all  who  should 
merit  it  by  exterminating  these  heretics.  Re- 
peated attempts  were  made  upon  the  life  of 
Rajanaiken.  His  wife  once  threw  herself  be- 
tween him  and  a  drawn  sword.  At  two  dif- 
ferent times  the  Romanists  beat  this  catechist 
till  they  left  him  for  dead  upon  the  road. 
Beschi,  the  Jesuit,  was  known  to  instigate  such 


CRITIQUE   UPON    THE   MISSION.  219 

outrages.'  Speaking  of  a  catechist  in  his  day 
whom  persecutors  had  beaten  to  a  senseless 
condition  Schwartz  remarked,  "  They  are  of 
their   father,  the   devil,  and   the   pope." 

Another  class  of  embarrassments  had  respect 
to  home  administration.  The  difficulty  was  in- 
herent. This  Danish  mission,  composed  chiefly 
of  German  laborers,  received  much  pecuniary 
aid  and  considerable  advice  from  England. 
The  superintendence  was  nominally  at  Copen- 
hagen, really  at  Halle ;   while  funds  came  from 

Denmark,    Sweden,    Germany,  and 

diversities* 
England.     Relations  so  diverse  and 

complicated  could  hardly  fail  to  cause  per- 
plexity. Harmon}^  all  around  would  have  been 
well-nigh  a  miracle.  The  reports  from  Tran- 
quebar  were  published  at  Halle — Copenhagen 
publishing  nothing  originally,  being  content  to 
receive  information  through  that  channel.  Al- 
most all  depends  upon  the  man,  not  upon  the 
home  administration,  however  it  may  be  com- 
posed. Two  of  the  more  able  and  success- 
ful missionaries  of  this  period  (Schwartz  and 
Gericke)  were  in  no  very  intimate  executive 
relations  to  any  body  of  men  in  Europe. 

Differences  in  religious  sentiment  and  differ- 
ences of  national  feeling  existed  among  the 
missionaries.      The     pietism    of     Saxony    never 


'  Even   Pope   Benedict   XIV  pronounced   the  Jesuit  fathers 
inobedientes,  contumaces,  captiosi,  et  perditi  homines. 


220  PEOTESTANT    MISSIONS. 

gained  any  wide  acceptance  in  Denmark ;  yet 
a  majority  of  the  missionaries,  the  earlier  ones 
especially,  were  Halle  students,  and,  happily, 
bore  the  impress  of  that  institution  —  a  circum- 
stance, however,  which  did  not  conciliate  Dan- 
ish sympathy.  By  the  close  of  the  century 
more  than  fifty  missionaries  had  gone  out. 
The  predominance  of  German  blood  and  the 
German  language  among  them  served  to  create 
embarrassments.  It  was  nothing  strange  that 
the  Danish  element  should  find  occasion  for 
criticism.  In  our  day  it  is  sometimes  the 
case  that  persons  of  diverse  training  and  social 
habits  fail  to  work  harmoniously  in  the  same 
mission. 

Royal  patronage,  though  at  the  time  and 
under  the  circumstances  deemed  to  be  of  great 
importance,  was  hardly  a  help  on  the  whole. 
In  that  age  the  traditional  idea  prevailed  that 
everything  great  and  good  must,  to  be  success- 
ful,  have    the    support    of    govern- 

„  /^*^  ment.      The    present  facility  of  or- 

Relations.  .    .  t  ,  .  .     ,       ,      . 

ganizing   did   not   exist;    indeed,  it 

had  hardly  dawned  upon  the  minds  of  men 
that  for  many  purposes  private  persons  have 
a  perfect  right  to  associate,  and  that  they  can 
accomplish  their  objects  better  in  the  absence 
of  endowment  and  interference  of  every  kind 
from  civil  powers.  Now  throughout  the  civi- 
lized world  the  drift  —  here    and  there  amount- 


CRITIQUE   UPON    THE   MISSION.  221 

ing  to  a  struggle  —  is  to  secure  a  free  chnrch 
in  a  free  state.  King  Frederick  meant  well, 
but  the  missionaries  were  led  to  expect  too 
much  from  royal  orders.  Mandates  from  the 
home  government  had  but  little  influence  in 
rectifying  abuses  at  Tranquebar.  Rendering 
unto  Csesar  the  things  that  are  Csesar's,  men 
must  beware  of  expecting  from  Caesar  what 
can    come    only   from    God. 

One  embarrassment  which  the  missionaries 
met  with  was  peculiarly  trying  —  the  pernicious 
influence  of  many  European  residents  who  bore 
the  name  of  Christians.  This  is  an  obstacle 
which  in  every  part  of  the  world,  more  especially 
at  the  great  emporiums  of  trade  and  wherever 
European  commerce  or  arms  extend,  has  been 
encountered.  Throughout  the  mari- 
time resrions  of  the  East  Indies  and     ^^  .    . 

"  Christians. 

the  island  groups  of  the  Pacific, 
other  things  equal,  Christian  work  has  been 
successful  in  the  ratio  of  distance  from  Euro- 
pean and  American  nominal  Christians.  If  in 
the  early  days  of  New  England,  with  a  ruling 
sentiment  so  strongly  in  favor  of  pure  religion 
and  sound  morality,  John  Eliot  found  occasion 
to  complain  of  the  evil  influences  exerted  upon 
the  Indians  by  unprincipled  men,  how  much 
more  urgent  must  be  the  occasion  where  no 
restraints  of  public  opinion  or  of  law  exist! 
It  is  notorious    that  the   morals  of   Portuguese, 


222  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

Dutch,  Danes,  and  English  in  the  East  have 
largely  been  a  reproach  to  the  Christian  name.' 
Though  calling  themselves  Christians  they  are 
such,  not  by  holding  the  distinctive  doctrines 
of  onr  religion,  but  because  in  the  general 
census  of  the  world  they  are  not  classed  as 
Jews,  Mohammedans,  or  idolaters.  Englishmen 
were  then  wont  to  say  that  they  left  their  reli- 
gion at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  on  the  way 
out,  which  they  could  pick  up  on  the  way  back 
to  Europe.  What  religion  those  men  had  was 
not  likely  to  enrich  South  Africa  in  the  mean- 
time. Sir  Monier  Williams  remarks,  "I  doubt, 
however,  whether  the  worst  Indians  are  ever  so 
offensive  in  their  vices  as  the  worst  type  of 
low,  unprincipled  Europeans."^  When  a  cer- 
tain European,  who  had  been  a  terror  and  a 
disgrace  to  a  district  in  Southern  India,  died 
the  natives  habitually  offered  brandy  and  cigars 
at  his  tomb  to  propitiate  his  spirit,  which  was 
supposed  to  be  still  wandering  about  with  bad 
intentions.^  It  is  not  yet  a  century  since  Cap- 
tain William  Bruce  wrote  to  Southey  that  if 
our  empire  in  India  were  overthrown  the  only 
monuments  that  would  remain  of  us  would  be 
broken  bottles  and  corks.  Schwartz  declares 
that  in  his   earlier   acquaintance  with   India   he 


'  Note  45. 

^Modern  India,  p.  128. 
^  Modern  India,  p.  136. 


CRITIQUE   UPON   THE   MISSION.  223 

sought  in  vain  for  a  pious  European.  Later 
missionaries  have  sometimes  confessed  to  much 
the  same.'  There  was  not  a  precept  of  their 
own  religion  which  the  natives  did  not  observe, 
nor  a  precept  of  Christianity  wliich  some  Euro- 
peans did  not  disregard.  What  could  the  hon- 
est servants  of  Christ  do  in  the  midst  of  such 
harassing  retorts  as  were  made  by  the  Hindus? 
"When  I  was  once  talking  to  them,"  writes 
Ziegenbalg,  "and  seemed  to  have  reached  ther 
consciences,  they  answered  me,  '  If  you  Chris- 
tians, with  your  eating  and  drinking,  ^^our  for- 
nication and  adultery,  your  cursing  and  swear- 
ing, and  your  wicked  lives,  expect  to  be  saved, 
surely  we,  with  our  quiet,  orderly  lives,  may 
hope  for  it  also,  even  if  our  religion  be  false 
and  altogether  a  fabrication.'" 

Failures  on  the  score  of  Christian  character 
occurred  among  missionaries  themselves.  At 
Tranquebar,  of  about  half  a  hundred  men,^ 
there  were  several  who  made  shipwreck.^  Per- 
versions even  to  heathen  beliefs  have  occurred. 
Colonel  Vans  Kenneday,  for  instance,  an  Ori- 
ental scholar,  was  understood  by  the  Hindus 
to  have  become  a  believer  in  their  religion. 
Strange  as  it  may  seem,  one  of  the  earliest 
converts   secured    by    Rammohun    Roy    was    an 


'Arthur's  Missiotis  to  Mysore,  p.  65. 
^From  1706  to  1819,  fifty-four. 
'  Note  46. 


224  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

Englisli    missionary    sent    out    by    the    Baptist 
Society.' 

One  dark  spot  in  the  history  of  every  church 
which  has  organic  connection  witli  the  state  is 
the  inevitable  absence  of  discipline.  Nothing 
but  a  sense  of  historical  justice  could  reconcile 
us  to  direct  the  eye  to  such  blots  as  have  now 
been  mentioned.  It  is  hardly  necessary,  and  yet 
very  gratifying,  to  add  that  in  later  years  there 
has  been  a  great  improvement ;  that  the  riot- 
ous livincr  and  otoss  vices  of  earlier  times  have 
been  largely  corrected;  that,  whereas  author- 
ities, civil  and  military,  formerly  to  no  incon- 
siderable extent  patronized  idolatry,  there  have 
been  and  are  now  men  of  high  positions  who 
maintain  a  decidedlj^  Christian  character  and 
second  Christian  endeavors.  Both  hither  India 
and  farther  India  furnish  noble  illustrations. 
The  names  of  Robert  N.  Cust,  LL.D.;  of  Brig- 
adier Parsons  and  Brigadier  Nicholson ;  of  Ma- 
jor General  Sir  Herbert  Edwardes,  General  Sir 
Henry  Havelock,  General  Sir  Henr}^  Lawrence, 
and  General  Sir  Robert  Phayre ;  of  Sir  Robert 
Grant  and  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  governor  of  Bora- 
bay;   of   Lord   Lawrence  and  Lord  Northbrook, 

*  James  Vaughan:  The  Trident,  the  Crescent,  and  the  Cross. 
London,  1876.  Pp.  209,  210.  "  Which  is  only  a  little  less  re- 
markable than  the  fact  that  an  unlettered  Zulu  should  be 
able  to  shake  the  faith  of  an  English  prelate  !  Doubtless  the 
same  reason  will  stand  good  in  either  case  —  the  faith  thus 
shaken  was  very  shaky  to  begin  with." 


CRITIQUE   UPON   TFIE   MISSION.  225 

governors  general  of  India,  are  to  be  mentioned 

with  special  honor.' 

But    there    were    direct    results    which    it    is 

cheering   to    contemplate.      Of   the    missionaries 

sent  out  to   India   during   all   this   long  period 

only    twenty-four   labored    exclusively   at   Tran- 

quebar.      Many    thousands,   as    we    have    seen, 

were   admitted    to    the   church.      What    propor- 

tion    of   these    were    truly    converted    it    is,    of 

course,    impossible     to     say,    but     probably     a 

large  number.      Among  more  immediate  results 

should  be  named  the  rise  of  other 

stations   or    missions,    north,    west,         ^. 

'  '  '  Direct. 

and  south — at  Cuddalore  (1737), 
at  Madras  (1726),  at  Trichinopoly  and  Tanjore 
(1767),  at  Negapatam  (1732),  at  Palamcotta 
(1785),  also  an  unsuccessful  attempt  on  the 
Nicobar  Islands  (1756).  Tranquebar  became 
the  mother  of  missions,  which,  however,  in  their 
infancy  were  adopted  by  the  English  Christian 
Knowledge  Society,  some  of  them  never  hav- 
ing properly  a  distinctive  Danish  existence.^ 
Chiefly  to  the  influence  of  this  mission  must 
be  ascribed  the  cessation  of  slavery  among  the 
Danes,  which  was  effected  in  1745.  The  press 
also,  through  the  Bible  and  other  treasures  in 
Christian  literature,  exerted  a  sensible  influence 
in    purifying    and    elevating    a    portion   of    the 


'Note  47. 
''Note  48. 


226  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

native  community.  Books  from  this  source  — 
then  the  solitary  Protestant  source — found 
their  way  to  Ceylon,  to  Bombay,  and  to  the 
northern  Circars.  Today  there  are  numerous 
presses  in  India.  Books  and  tracts  are  fur- 
nished in  more  than  thirty  languages  and  dia- 
lects; while  thousands  of  copies  of  God's  Word 
are  issued  annually,  the  aggregate  of  portions 
or  the  whole  volume  of  Sacred  Scriptures 
amounting  already  to  millions.  The  Tranque- 
bar  stock  decayed  and  lost  nearly  all  its  vital- 
ity, yet  it  lives  in  offshoots,  as  branches  from 
the  banyan  may  thrive  though  the  original 
trunk   be   dead. 

There  were  incidental  results  of  considerable 
moment.  The  reacting  influence  at  home  of 
any  mission  is  to  be  regarded  as  second  in 
importance  only  to  what  it  accomplishes  in  the 
foreign  field.  Denmark  herself  derived  but  lit- 
tle benefit  comparatively  from  this  evangelistic 

operation.     And    no   wonder !     The 
j^  '^  f^        enterprise    was    almost    purely    an 

affair  of  the  Danish  court,  not  of 
the  Danish  people.  Whatever  the  crown  is 
known  to  favor  will,  as  a  matter  of  fashion, 
have  a  certain  amount  of  consideration;  but 
this  work  among  the  heathen  never  took  hold 
of  the  hearts  of  the  people.  It  was  a  royal 
undertaking,  for  which  another  nationality  had 
to    be    subsidized    at    the    outset,    and    in    the 


CRITIQUE   UPO  N    THE  MISSION".  227 

service  of  which  no  Dane  ever  became  promi- 
nent. Danish  missionaries  were  unwilling  to 
engage  for  a  life  service,  and  demanded,  after 
a  few  years  in  Tranquebar,  some  lucrative  situ- 
ation at  home.'  The  missionary  college  was 
rather  a  bureau  of  the  civil  government  than 
an  affair  of  the  church.  Neither  the  court  nor 
the  community  at  home  was  ever  very  much 
moved  by  this  enterprise.  One  can  hardly 
help  calling  to  mind  the  fact  that  in  the  Baltic 
Sea  the  water  has  comparatively  a  small  pro- 
portion of  salt  and  that  there  is  almost  no 
flux  or  reflux.  Except  now  and  then  a  ripple 
of  detraction,  indifference  seems  to  have  pre- 
vailed. Dr.  Liitkens  retained  the  superintend- 
ence while  he  lived,  but  upon  his  decease  the 
Bishop  of  Zealand  would  have  nothing  to  do 
with  it,  and  an  occasional  pamphlet  appeared 
reflecting  upon  the  enterprise  or  upon  the 
agents  employed  in  it.  Only  an  inconsiderable 
benefit  from  foreign  missions  can  accrue,  in  the 
way  of  reaction,  to  any  church  or  community 
which  does  not  study  the  subject,  feel  the  re- 
sponsibility, and  have  at  least  a  large  share  in 
furnishing  missionaries  and  their  supplies. 

The  reacting  influence  of  the  mission  in  Ger- 
many was  more  apparent  and  proportionately 
more  valuable.  True,  from  the  first  there  were 
those    in    the    universities    and    elsewhere    who 


'  Germann :  Missionar  Schwartz,  p.  184. 


228  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

derided  the  enterprise  and  showed  the  bitter- 
ness of  a  most  unchristian  prejudice.'  Still, 
reports  of  the  good  work  were  widely  read, 
and  the  missionary  spirit  then  centering  in 
Halle  never  wholly  died  out  in  Germany, 
though  it  approached  the  point  of  extinction. 
But  for  these  smoldering  embers  there  might 
have  been  no  such  rekindling  as  has  been 
witnessed  within  the  last  three  quarters  of  a 
century. 

England,  too,  shared  happily  in  the  indirect 
benefits.  As  we  have  seen,  some  of  the  early 
missionaries  hailing  from  Denmark  visited  Lon- 
don on  their  way  out  and  were  kindly  re- 
ceived; abstracts  of  the  Tranquebar  correspond- 
ence were  issued  from  the  English  press; 
dignitaries  of  the  English  Church  —  notably 
Archdeacon  Wake  —  manifested  a  laudable  in- 
terest. From  the  Reformation  onward  there  has 
been  a  measure  of  religious  sympathy  between 
Germany  and  England.  About  the  middle  of 
the  18th  century  Frederick  the  Great  was  court- 
ing the  alliance  of  England  —  an  alliance  which 
became  popular.  The  House  of  Brunswick  hav- 
ing come  to  the  English  throne,  a  mission  so 
largely  German  might  be  expected  on  that 
account  to  receive  all  the  more  consideration. 
Ziegenbalg  wrote  to  George  I,  and  the  king 
sent  two  letters  to  the  mission.      The  Christian 

'Note  49. 


CRITIQUE   UPON   THE   MISSION.  229 

Knowledge  Society  made  a  special  arrangement 
for  receiving  funds  in  aid  of  the  good  work, 
manifesting  a  persistent  interest  in  the  evan- 
gelization of  India.  Contributions  of  mone}', 
books,  and  paper  were  sent  out,  as  well  as 
the  press  previously  mentioned.  The  greatly 
revived  interest  in  the  evangelization  of  India 
and  other  heathen  lands  which  sprang  up  in 
England  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century 
was  partly  a  result  of  Danish  and  German 
labors  in  the  southern  peninsula. 

Time  was  when  Danes  levied  tribute  on  the 
English ;  when  they  restrained  all  English  ship- 
ping from  trade  in  Norway,  save  at  one  port 
(1429)  ;  and  when,  in  the  tenth  century-,  three 
archbishops  of  Danish  family  presided  over  the 
English  Church.  But  we  have  now  seen  Eng- 
lish ships  conveying  Danish  missionaries  and 
English  patronage  helping  to  keep  alive  a  Dan- 
ish movement  —  one  of  the  pioneer  Christian 
enterprises  of  modern  times.  The  Head  of  the 
Church  appears  to  have  accepted  this  Chris- 
tian kindliness,  and  to  have  treated  it  as  the 
grain  of  mustard  seed  which  was  to  grow  into 
the  wide-branching  tree  of  present  British  mis- 
sions among  the  heathen. 

One  incidental  result  remains  to  be  noticed 
—  that  of  spiritual  benefit  to  European  resi- 
dents in  the  East.  Many  of  them,  both  in  the 
civil   and    military    service,  have    been    greatly 


230  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

blessed  in  their  religious  life  by  the  public 
services  and  private  intercourse  of  missionaries.' 
The  Scottish  widow  has  rejoiced  over  a  trans- 
formed prodigal :  "  He  was  dead,  but  is  alive 
again;  he  was  lost,  but  is  found." ^  "I  was 
born,"  said  one,  "and  reared  in  Britain,  a  land 
of  light,  where  I  lived  in  darkness.  In  Ceylon, 
a  land  of  darkness,  I  have  been  made  partaker 
of  the  light  of  life."  Others  not  a  few  can 
say  the  same  concerning  those  heathen  lands 
where  faithful  missionaries  are  found,  and  they 
in  turn  become  Christian  workers. 
Resident        q^^^    ^£    ^-^^    most   useful   assistant 

Europeans.  .      .  ,        .         i        •  ,        i 

Wesle3'^an  missionaries  m  the  island 
of  Ceylon  came  to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth 
through  the  instrumentality  of  a  pious  soldier, 
who  was  himself  the  fruit  of  missionary  labor 
on  that  island.  Native  soldiers  have  sometimes 
become  Christian  converts,  although  time  was 
when  that  brought  down  oppression  from  the 
government  of  India  as  severe  as  it  would 
from  heathen  sources.  For  example,  there  was 
a  well-known  case  at  Meerut  of  such  a  man  in 
the  ranks  who,  on  being  brought  before  a  mili- 
tary court,  was  reported  as  a  dangerous  charac- 
ter and  removed  from  the  regiment.  Schwartz 
once  declined  to  receive  the  legacy  which  a 
grateful  English   convert  had   left   him  lest  his 


» Pearson's  Memoir  of  Schwartz,  pp.  73,  91,  106,  111. 

2  William  Campbell :  British  India.     London,  1839.     P.  176. 


CRITIQUE   UPON   THE   MISSION.  231 

motives  should  be  impeached.  Colonel  Bie,  the 
governor  at  Serampore,  had  enjoyed  the  instruc- 
tion and  religious  influence  of  Sclnvartz,  and 
was  thus  prepared  to  shelter  missionaries  whom 
the  East  India  Company  were  so  reluctant  to 
see  in  Bengal.  It  was  to  William  Chambers  — 
who  had  been  brought  to  Christ  through  the 
instrumentality  of  Schwartz  —  on  removing  to 
Calcutta  that  Charles  Grant  owed  his  conver- 
sion, and  Charles  Grant  was  the  first  man  con- 
nected with  the  government  who  became  an 
advocate  in  England  for  the  mental  and  reli- 
gious improvement  of  natives  in  India.  It  is  a 
gratifying  circumstance  that  Lieutenant  Wade, 
an  aid  to  the  commander  in  chief  at  Bombay, 
and  who  assisted  our  first  missionaries  there, 
attributed  his  conversion  to  them. 

A  scene  witnessed  from  the  housetop  of  one 
of  our  missionary  stations  in  India  comes  to 
my  recollection  with  great  distinctness.  An 
officer  of  the  English  Army  on  his  way  from 
the  interior  to  the  seacoast  stopped  for  an 
hour  or  two  to  pay  his  respects  to  one  of  our 
missionary  staff.  More  elegance  of  person  or 
courtliness  of  manners  than  those  of  that  Eng- 
lish colonel  are  seldom  met  with.  The  Amer- 
ican Board  has  perhaps  never  sent  out  a  man 
of  such  elephantine  figure  and  movement  as 
the  missionary  referred  to.  When  the  moment 
of  leave-taking  came   I  happened  to  be  looking 


232  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

down  from  the  flat  roof  of  the  house,  and 
never  did  a  loving  Timothy  shed  tears  more 
profusely  or  greet  "  Paul  the  aged "  with  a 
"holy  kiss"  more  ardent  than  were  bestowed 
by  the  once  proud  Englishman  on  that  rough 
American,  his  spiritual  father. 


X 

HANS    EGEDE. 


And  now  from  tropical  to  arctic  regions. 
Even  the  extreme  north  has  its  fascination. 
The  barriers  which  surround  it  and  the  mys- 
teries which  hang  over  it,  so  far  from  deter- 
ring, only  stimulate  one  class  of  adventurers. 
Since  the  time  of  Columbus  more  skill  and 
intrepidity  have  been  displayed  in  arctic  ex- 
ploration   than     perhaps     in     all 

,,  ,      .  T,.  Arctic  Regions, 

other  exploring  expeditions  com- 
bined. The  hope  of  discovering  a  northwest 
or  a  northeast  passage,  and  of  thus  opening  a 
shorter  way  to  the  Indies,  has  for  nearly  four 
hundred  years  moved  different  governments  to 
engage  in  this  line  of  search.  Learned  socie- 
ties have  lent  their  aid,  while  for  many  of 
those  who  personally  embark  there  is  a  charm 
in  the  very  magnitude  of  difficulties.  The  se- 
crets of  that  inclement  polar  world  appeal  to 
the  heroic  in  noble  natures.  The  men  most 
likely   to   volunteer    for    a   new   expedition   are 


234  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

men  who  have  already  experienced  northern 
rig^ors.  The  fact  that  more  than  a  hundred 
and  thirty  expeditions  have  proved  failures,  or 
that  a  passage  if  found  would  be  of  small  prac- 
tical value,  does  not  check  renewed  attempts; 
nor  will  Captain  Nares'  report  of  a  steady 
temperature  at  sixty  degrees  l)elow  zero  and 
of  common  ice  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet 
thick  deter  adventure  while  there  remains  so 
broad  a  tract  which  man  has  never  visited. 
Look  in  upon  Captain  Parry,  braving  the  ex- 
treme polar  cold  for  two  years  on  Melville 
Island ;  read  Kane's  narrative  of  his  explora- 
tions or  the  narrative  of  Greeley's  expedition, 
and  say  if  these  can  be  surpassed  by  any 
record   of  human    endurance. 

Beyond  the  arctic  circle  one  finds  himself 
where  there  are  only  two  seasons  to  the  year, 
one  of  light  and  one  of  darkness  —  a  day  of 
eight  months  and  a  night  of  four  months,  a 
night,  however,  that  is  relieved  by  brilliant 
auroras.  And  what  shall  we  say  of  the  cold? 
Explorers  have  found  that  no  later  than  the 
first  of  October  and  no  higher  than  latitude 
seventy-five  strong  drinks  turn  to  ice  and 
burst  the  vessels,  and  that  even  spirits  of 
wine  thicken  and  become  like  congealed  oil. 
When  one  boils  water  it  often  first  freezes 
over  the  fire  till  heat  gains  the  mastery."     Be- 


*  Cranz's  History  of  Greenland,  p.  43. 


HANS   EGEDE.  235 

fore  ice  begins  to  form  along  the  coast  the 
sea  smokes  and  produces  a  mist  called  frost- 
smoke,  which  has  the  effect  of  blistering  the 
skin.  Quite  superfluous  is  it  to  say  that 
even  in  the  more  favored  southern  portions 
of  Greenland  vegetation  is  scanty  and  stunted. 
The  tallest  trees  are  but  eighteen  feet  high.' 
Of  forests   there   are    none. 

Why  has  the  Creator  so  disposed  physical 
forces  as  to  produce  such  a  region?  Why 
attach  such  a  crystal  pendant  to  the  extreme 
frozen  north,  a  polar  trinacria,  mere  clusters 
of  barren  rocks  swathed  with  eternal  ice, 
scarcely  accessible  on  its  eastern  coast,  and 
on  its  western  presenting  a  rampart  that 
frowns  upon  all  approach?  "Whatsoever  the 
Lord  pleaseth  that  did  he  in  heaven  and  in 
earth,  in  the  seas  and  in  all  deep  places." 
The  same  sovereign  Avill  that  would  have 
Europe  without  a  desert  would  have  Green- 
land the  one  that  is  only  a  desert.  The  sunny 
south  may  not  say  to  arctic  regions,  "I  have 
no  need  of  you ; "  nor  does  it  behoove  the  one 
third  land  surface  of  our  globe  to  wonder  at 
the  two  thirds  water  surface.  The  law  of  dif- 
ferences reigns  everywhere,  and  is  indispensable 
in  the  great  economy  of  nature.  Owing  to 
diversities  of  temperature  oceanic  currents  keep 

'Note  50. 


236  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

polar  and  tropical  waters  in  a  constant  inter- 
change, preserving  their  purity  and  softening 
what  would  otherwise  be  destructive  extremes. 
The  divine  Architect  has  ordained  an  immense 
stretch  of  ice  as  a  beneficent  refrigerator  for 
other   latitudes. 

Early  in  the  18th  century  the  germ  of  a  new 
settlement  and  of  a  new  Christian  movement 
came  into  being.  That  germ  was  a  thought  in 
the  mind  of  Hans  Egede.  The  persistence  of 
benevolent  purpose  displayed  by  him  in  finding 
his  way  to  Greenland  and  remaining  there  in 
the  face  of  appalling  discouragements  entitles 
his  history  to  some  measure  of  detail.  He 
was  a  Norwegian,  born  1686,  and 
ge  .  j^g^^-j-jg  studied  for  the  sacred  office 
at  Copenhagen  was  ordained  pastor  of  a  church 
in  Vaagen,'  on  the  western  coast  of  Norwaj^, 
1707,  the  year  after  Ziegenbalg  and  Pliitschau 
reached  Tranquebar.  He  had  read  old  chron- 
icles relating  to  his  countrymen  in  Greenland, 
and  after  a  twelvemonth  of  pastoral  labor  the 
thought  occurred  to  him  that  something  should 
be  done  to  ascertain  their  condition  and  to  re- 
claim them  if,  as  he  feared,  they  might  have 
relapsed  into  heathenism. 

Before  the   close  of  the   seventeenth   century 


'Various  readings:  Vaage,  Vagen,  Vogen,  Waagen,  "Wagen, 
etc. 


HANS    EGEDE.  237 

three  kings  had  successively  entertained  the 
purpose  of  sending  out  ships  to  reopen  com- 
munication with  the  lost  colony ;  success  was 
reserved  for  this  lonely  Protestant  pastor.  The 
geographical  position  of  Norway  favored  the 
turn  which  his  thoughts  were  taking.  Its 
northern  extremity  reaches  within  the  polar 
circle,  and  its  lofty  mountain  peaks  confront 
the  Arctic  Sea.  You  have  only  to  strip  that 
rugged  country  of  its  tall  pines  and  push  it  up 
farther  toward  the  pole  to  obtain  a  repetition 
of  Greenland.  Indeed,  Egede's  parish  lay  in  a 
latitude  somewhat  higher  than  Cape  Farewell. 
Mere  curiosity,  as  he  imagines,  leads  him  to 
make  inquiries  of  Bergen  shipmasters  who  are 
engaged  in  the  whale  fishery.  Musing  on  the 
condition  of  supposed  forlorn  Northmen,  de- 
scendants of  his  own  Norwegian  forefathers, 
from  whom  nothing  has  been  heard  for  a  long 
while,  he  begins  to  entertain  the  idea  of  doing 
something  for  them.  At  first  such  an  endeavor 
seems  impracticable.  A  home  field  of  labor 
has  been  given  him ;  he  has  a  wife  and  chil- 
dren. Vividly  do  the  sufferings  and  perils  of 
an  undertaking  like  the  one  which  occurs  to 
him  stand  out  to  view,  and  he  endeavors  to 
banish  the  subject.  Egede  has  not  yet  come 
distinctly  to  the  consciousness  that  God  is  call- 
ing him.  The  Danish  mission  to  Tranquebar 
had   its  origin  in    a  crowned   head;    the   Danisb. 


238  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

mission    to    Greenland   springs   from    the    Chris- 
tian  heart   of  an    obscure   pastor. 

Brooding  over  the  matter  he  at  length  draws 
up  a  memorial,  setting  forth  Scripture  promises 
concerning  the  conversion  of  the  heathen,  the 
command  of  Christ,  the  example  of  many  pious 
and  learned  men,  and  forwards  it  to  Bishop 
Krog,  of  Drontheim,  and  Bishop  Randulf,  of 
Bergen,  with  a  petition  asking  them  to  use 
influence  at  court  in  favor  of  a  project  for 
Christianizing  the  Greenlanders.  That  was 
(1710)  just  one  hundred  years  before  Judson 
and    the     three     Samuels  —  Samuel 

Newell,     Samuel     Nott,     and     Sam- 
Leadings.  ;  _         ' 

uel  Mills — memorialized  the  Gen- 
eral Association  of  Massachusetts  regarding  a 
mission  among  the  heathen.  The  next  year 
a  favorable  answer  comes  from  Bishop  Krog, 
commending  Egede's  pious  intention  and  giv- 
ing encouragement  of  assistance.  The  bishop's 
geography  is,  to  be  sure,  somewhat  at  fault,  for 
he  remarks  that  Greenland  is  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Cuba,  where  Spanish  and  other  col- 
onists found  gold,  of  which  a  supply  might  be 
obtained." 

Hitherto  Egede  has  kept  the  matter  chiefly 
in  his  own  breast,  but  through  this  corre- 
spondence   the    project    becomes    known    to   his 

■  Note  61. 


HANS    EGEDE.  239 

friends,  who  raise  vehement  opposition.  His 
wife,'  mother,  and  mother-in-law  do  their  ut- 
most to  divert  his  mind  from  what  appears  to 
them  a  preposterous  enterprise.  Yielding  for 
a  time  to  their  tears  and  remonstrances  Egede 
tries  to  persuade  himself  that  he  has  labored 
under  a  delusion,  but  the  words  of  our  Saviour, 
"He  that  loveth  father  or  mother  more  than 
me  is  not  worthy  of  me,"  stir  up  a  new  con- 
flict of  feeling.  He  has  no  rest  in  spirit  day 
nor  night.  Local  vexations  arise  at  Vaagen 
which  at  length  reconcile  his  wife  to  leaving 
the  place,  and  this  he  regards  as  providentially 
opening  the  way.  It  is  suggested  that  these 
embarrassments  may  have  been  sent  on  account 
of  their  reluctance  to  give  up  all  for  Christ. 
The  wife  carries  this  subject  to  God  in  prayer, 
and  becomes  convinced  that  she  is  called  to 
embark  with  her  husband  in  the  good  work. 
Egede  addresses  a  memorial  to  the  College  or 
Board  of  Missions,  which  Frederick  IV  had 
established  (1714)  at  Copenhagen,  who  urged 
the  Bishops  of  Bergen  and  Drontheim  to  sec- 
ond Egede's  request.  They,  however,  counseled 
delay  till  more  favorable  times.  Postponements 
continued,  and  hence  in  1715  he  drew  up  a 
vindication.  It  was  entitled,  "  A  Scriptural 
and   Rational    Solution    and    Explanation,   with 


'  N€e  Gertrude  Rast 


240  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

regard  to  the  objections  and  impediments 
raised  against  the  design  of  converting  the 
heathenish  Greenlanders."  An  imappreciative 
world  still  urged  the  dangers  of  the  voyage, 
the  severity  of  the  climate,  the  madness  of 
exchanging  a  certain  for  an  uncertain  liveli- 
hood, and  of  exposing  wife  and  children  to 
such  perils,  and  finally  they  resorted  to  def- 
amation, charging  him  with  selfish  motives. 
Egede  was  a  popular  preacher,  and  members 
of  other  congregations  flocked  to  hear  him. 
A  neighboring  pastor  imputed  to  him  the 
fault  of  empty  seats,  and  hence  became  a 
detractor. 

Restive  under  prolonged  delays  he  resolves 
to  visit  headquarters  that  he  may  the  better 
prosecute  his  undertaking.  He  proposes  to  re- 
sign his  office  on  condition  that  his  successor 
shall  pay  an  annual  pension  till  he  himself  is 
provided  for  in  Greenland  or  elsewhere,  but 
no  one  will  accept  the  benefice 
thus  hampered.  At  length  (1718) 
he  resigns  unconditionally.  Hans  Egede  is  the 
only  pastor  known  to  history  who  spent  ten 
years  in  unavailing  endeavors  to  gain  access  to 
a  mission  field  and  at  length  surrendered  his 
charge,  still  uncertain  whether  he  would  be 
able  to  secure  cooperation  or  reach  the  desired 
place.  Just  then  comes  a  rumor  that  a  vessel 
from  Bergen  has   been  wrecked  on  the   coast  of 


HANS    EGEDE.  241 

Greenland,  and  that  the  crew  were  devoured 
by  cannibals.  But  this  frightful  tale  does  not 
deter  the  good  man  and  his  wife.  She  was 
already  being  disciplined  into  a  Christian  her- 
oine, and  with  their  four  children  they  move 
to  Bergen,  still  determined  to  find  a  way  to 
disparaged    Greenland. 

At  Bergen  Egede  meets  with  the  usual  ex- 
perience of  pioneers  in  Christian  benevolence ; 
he  is  looked  upon  as  a  fanatic  for  abandon- 
ing a  comfortable  home  and  starting  out  upon 
such  knight-errantry  of  benevolence.  It  be- 
comes necessary  to  give  up  the  expectation 
of  awakening  sufficient  interest  to  effect  his 
object  independently  of  secular  inducements. 
The  Greenland  trade  from  Bergen  had  been 
ruined  by  the  competition  of  other  nations, 
and  those  to  whom  he  looks  for  cooperation 
are  not  prepared  for  any  venture  in  that  line, 
especially  so  long  as  the  war  then  existing 
with  Sweden  lasts.  Was  it  outside  the  de- 
signs of  Providence  that  precisely  at  that  junc- 
ture (1718)  the  erratic  career  of  Charles  XII 
of  Sweden,  who  had  been  at  war  with  Den- 
mark, should  suddenly  come  to  an  end  and 
peace  ensue?  Egede  hastens  to  Copenhagen. 
He  presents  to  the  College  of  Missions  his 
memorial,  with  proposals  in  which  the  fact  of 
an  existing  mission  to  Tranquebar  is  pleaded 
in   behalf  of  one  to    Greenland.     He  obtains  a 


242  rrwOTESTANT  missions. 

favorable  answer  and  also  an  interview  with 
His  Majesty  Frederick  IV,  who  listens  to  his 
proposal.  "  Seest  thou  a  man  diligent  in  busi- 
ness?    He  shall  stand  before  kings." 

Success,  however,  is  not  yet  assured.  A 
royal  order  (November  17,  1719)  transmitted 
to  Bergen  requires  a  magistrate  to  collect  the 
opinions  of  commercial  men  who  have  been  in 
Davis'  Strait  regarding  traffic  with  Greenland 
and  the  feasibility  of  planting  a  colony  there. 
But  no  one  seems  favorably  disposed,  and 
Egede's  scheme  again  becomes  a  mockery. 
He  endeavors  to  make  interest  privately  with 
individuals,  and  meets  with  some  success ;  but 
the  tide  turning  once  more  fresh  derision  is 
his  lot.  Under  obloquy  and  disappointment 
another  year  wears  away.  His  heart,  however, 
does  not  fail.  The  Macedonian  cry  has  been 
wafted  to  his  ear  by  polar  winds.  It  is  some- 
body's business  —  it  is  Hans  Egede's  business  — 
to  become  the  apostle  of  Greenland;  otherwise 
would  "all  the  ends  of  the  earth  see  the  sal- 
vation  of  God  ?  " 

At  last  a  few  are  touched  by  his  zeal,  so 
indefatigable  despite  repulses  and  mockeries. 
A  capital  of  two  thousand  pounds  sterling  is 
subscribed;  the  king  sends  a  present  of  forty 
pounds  for  the  equipment,  appoints  him  pas- 
tor of  the  new  colony  and  missionary  to  the 
heathen,    with    a    salary    of    sixty    pounds    per 


HANS    EGEDE.  243 

annum.  A  ship  called  Haabet  ("The  Hope") 
—  the  Mayflower  of  that  enterprise  —  is  pur- 
chased, Egede  himself  subscribing  three  hun- 
dred   dollars.      Another     is    fitted 

out   for  the     whale   fishery,   and   a        ncourage- 

•^ '  ment  Tardy, 

third    to    bring    back    word    from 

the    colony.      May  12,  1721,  one    hundred  years 

after   the  Pilgrims  landed   at   Plj^mouth,  Egede, 

with    his     wife     and     four     children,     embarks. 

He  leads  an  expedition   numbering  about  forty 

souls. 

Thirteen  years  had  he  been  meditating  and 
praying  over  the  enterprise,  and  ten  years  had 
he  toiled  for  the  opportunity  to  embark  on  this 
forlorn  hope.  We  are  reminded  of  the  most 
illustrious  of  navigators.  Not  till  after  many 
years  of  poverty  and  repulses,  of  distrust  and 
suspected  lunacy,  did  Columbus  find  a  happy 
juncture.  The  fall  of  Grenada  left  the  Span- 
ish court  at  leisure  to  listen.  Ferdinand's 
mandate  to  the  authorities  and  people  of 
Palos  was  treated  much  as  Bergen  treated 
that  of  Frederick.  But  a  lofty  enthusiasm 
sustained  the  great  Italian  explorer  till,  in 
spite  of  mutiny  and  manifold  discouragements, 
he  conducted  his  three   caravels   to    Hispaniola. 

Details  of  the  perilous  voyage  to  Greenland 
need  not  be  given.  One  of  the  three  vessels, 
the  whaler,  parted  company  from  the  others, 
came    near    foundering    in    a    squall,   and    was 


244  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

driven  back  to  the  coast  of  Norway.  July  3, 
1721,  the  remainder  of  the  party  landed  on 
the  western  coast,  in  latitude  sixty-four,  at 
Ball's  River,  the  largest  stream  of  Greenland. 
In  the  estuary  of  that  river  are  numerous 
small  islands,  and  on  one  of  them,  named  for 
their  ship,  Hope  Island,'  they  built  a  house 
of  stone  and  earth,  which  they  entered  after 
a  sermon  on  Psalm  cxvii :  "  O  praise  the  Lord, 
all  ye  nations:  praise  him,  all  ye  people.  For 
his  merciful  kindness  is  great  toward  us:  and 
the  truth  of  the  Lord  endureth  forever.  Praise 
ye  the  Lord." 

Egede's  expectations  regarding  the  people  of 
the  country,  called  Skroellings  ("  chips "  or 
"parings"),  were  disappointed  —  a  mistake  no 
greater  than  that  of  Columbus,  who  sailed,  as 
he  supposed,  for  Cepango  (Japan),  and  who  died 
in  the  belief  that  he  had  discovered  the  East 
Indies.^  Ruins  of  ancient  Norwegian  villages 
and  even  churches  were  found  by  Egede.  But 
the  Greenlanders  then  on  the  ground  were 
neither  Northmen  nor  descendants  of  North- 
men; they  were  Eskimos.  Finding  their  social 
and  moral  condition  extremely  low,  and  their 
language  wholly   different   from  any  other  with 


'  Called  by  the  natives  Kangek. 

2  In  1614  Baffin  sailed  under  instructions  to  press  to  the 
north,  then  to  steer  westerly,  by  which  course  it  was  hoped 
he  might  "bear  down  upon  Japan." 


HANS    EGEDE.  245 

which  he  had  acquaintance,  our  missionary  was 
met,  but  not  daunted,  by  obstacles  the  most 
disheartening.  A  man  of  genuine  faith  and 
Christian  heroism,  his  spirit  rose  to  the  oc- 
casion. He  had  come  to  Greenland  as  a 
missionary,  and  here  was  a  people  evidently 
heathen.      The    vernacular    must 

^7  r  6  6  Ti  1  £1.  Ti  d  c  r  s 

be  mastered.  Learning  at  length 
the  significance  of  one  word,  Kina,  "What  is 
this?"  he  used  it  with  all  diligence  and  so 
obtained  a  vocabulary.  A  member  of  his  party 
was  detailed  to  live  for  a  time  amongst  the 
natives  in  order  to  catch  their  speech.  Paul, 
the  eldest  son  of  Egede,  made  good  progress, 
and  rendered  service  by  his  pencil  in  rudely 
sketching  Bible  scenes  which  his  father  en- 
deavored by  words  to  set  before  the  mind  of 
natives.  Acquisition,  however,  was  necessarily 
slow,  and  slower  yet  all  instruction  of  the 
Eskimos.  Youths  who  for  a  little  while  were 
willing  to  learn  at  the  rate  of  a  fishhook  for  a 
letter  soon  grew  weary,  saying  they  could  see 
no  use  in  looking  all  day  at  a  piece  of  paper 
and  crying.  A,  B,  C ;  that  the  missionary  and 
the  factor  were  worthless  people,  doing  noth- 
ing but  scrawl  in  a  book  with  a  feather ;  that 
the  Greenlanders  were  brave ;  they  could  hunt 
and  kill  birds.  Indeed,  their  own  name  for 
themselves  is  Innuit,  "the  men."  As  with 
all   rude    people    their    conceit   was   unbounded. 


24G  PROTESTANT    MISSIONS. 

Highest  commendatioa  of  a  European  they 
would  express  by  saying,  "  He  is  almost  as 
well  behaved  as  we  are ;  he  is  beginning  to 
be   a   man." 

Egede,  being  secular  head  of  the  colony  as 
well  as  its  minister  and  a  missionary  to  the 
heathen,  felt  obliged  to  make  explorations  in 
order  to  find  some  source  of  remunerative 
pecuniary  returns.  He  had  to  combat  de- 
pression among  the  colonists,  whose  privations 
were  great  and  whose  profits  next 

iscourage-     ^^    nothing.      For    provisions    they 

ments.  or  j 

were  compelled  to  depend  upon 
the  mother  country.  These  being  inconstant 
and  insufficient  they  were  sometimes  on  the 
verge  of  starvation.  True  the  king  granted 
a  lottery  for  their  benefit,  but  it  proved  a 
failure.  He  levied  a  tax  on  the  kingdom  of 
Denmark  and  Norway,  called  the  "Greenland 
Assessment,"  yet  remittances  were  irregular 
and   insufficient. 

Was  it  strange  that  under  the  influence  of 
such  a  climate  and  under  discouragements  such 
as  perhaps  no  other  missionary  ever  encoun- 
tered Egede  should  begin  to  waver  in  his 
purpose  of  remaining,  especially  as  others  had 
resolved  to  quit  the  intolerable  region?  But 
Gertrude,  his  wife  (noble  woman!),  would  not 
listen  to  the  thought.  She  would  render  no 
assistance   in   packing    up,  and   his   courage  ral- 


HANS    EGEDE.  247 

lied.  During  their  multiplied  perplexities  she 
maintained  cheerfulness,  under  all  burdens 
keeping  up  her  fortitude  and  faith.  "  Our 
Lord  called  us  away,"  she  said,  "from  our 
country  and  our  father's  house  to  come  hither, 
and  he  will  never  fail  us."  She  was  indefat- 
igable in  her  kindness  to  the  natives,  espe- 
cially in  times  of  sickness.  She  belongs  to  a 
group  of  early  missionaries'  companions  —  Har- 
riet Newell,  Ann  Haseltine  Judson,  and  others 
—  who  have  reflected  so  much  honor  upon 
their  sex  and  upon  the  cause  of  Christian 
philanthropy.  With  a  true  womanly  fortitude 
she  endures  the  repulsiveness  of  her  surround- 
ings, the  intensity  of  northern  frosts,  and  the 
intrusion  of  wild  beasts.  Once  a  huge  and 
hungry  polar  bear  breaks  into  the  house,  but 
into  his  eyes  and  open  mouth  she  dashes  a 
kettle  of  boiling  gruel,  and  bruin  retreats. 

The  merchants  of  Bergen  who  had  taken 
stock  in  this  colonizing  enterprise  became  dis- 
heartened and  the  company  disbanded  (1727). 
Three  years  later  King  Frederick  died,  and 
his  successor,  seeing  no  likelihood  of  reim- 
bursement from  the  Greenland  trade  for  sums 
already  expended,  issued  an  order  (1731)  that 
all  the  colonists  should  return  home.  It  was 
made  optional  with  Egede  to  leave  with  the 
rest  or  to  stay  with  such,  if  any,  who  of 
their    own    accord    would    remain.      Provisions 


248  PROTESTANT    MISSIONS. 

were  allowed  for  one  year,  but  it  was  an- 
nounced expressly  that  he  could  expect  no 
further  assistance.  Now  after  ten  years  of 
such  hardship,  vexations,  and  want  of  success, 
religious  as  well  as  temporal,  could  any  man 
be  expected  to  tarry,  especially  in  view  of 
such  a  royal  mandate  ?  There  was  good  rea- 
son to  believe  that  he  would  be  abandoned 
by  the  government  and  little  reason  to  sup- 
pose that  private  funds  would  afford  relief. 
Our  missionar}^  and  his  wife  resolved  to  stay. 
A  handful  of  other  colonists  stayed  with  them. 
His  two  colleagues  went  back  to 

Perseverance.       ^ 

Denmark,      ihe   next   year   King 

Christian  VI  sent  necessary  supplies,  and  the 
few  colonists  that  remained  met  with  more 
secular  success  than  in  any  previous  year. 
Later  came  word  that  the  Greenland  trade 
was  to  be  opened  anew  and  the  mission  to 
be  sustained,  for  which  purpose  his  majesty 
had  ordered  a  gift  of  four  hundred  pounds 
sterling.  Persistent  loyalty  to  the  King  of 
kings  triumphed.  One  party  of  northern  ex- 
plorers in  the  preceding  century  named  a  high 
promontory  which  they  discovered  "Cape  Hold- 
with-Hope."  Egede,  whose  very  name  suggests 
firmness,"  would  seem  to  have  kept  that  bold 
headland  always  in  his  eye,  "  Hold-with-Hope." 
Health  meanwhile   was  much  impaired.     Such 


*  Egede  —  Eeg,  the  Danish  for  "  oak.' 


HANS    EGEDE.  249 

incessant  labor,  solicitude,  privation,  and  se- 
verity of  climate  would  tell  upon  any  foreign 
constitution,  however  robust.  For  a  time  even 
his  mind  appears  to  have  sympathized  in  a 
measure  with  its  racked  tenement,  and  the 
only  wonder  is  that  there  was  not  an  entire 
collapse  of  both  body  and  mind.  With  the 
exception  of  chest  difficulties  Greenland  is 
subject  to  few  diseases.  No  epidemic  or  con- 
tagious malady  had  been  known  among  the 
natives  until  one  of  six  youths  who  were  sent 
to  Copenhagen  on  returning  brought  the  small- 
pox, which  was  communicated  to  his  country- 
men. It  raged  for  a  twelvemonth,  making 
fearful  havoc.  Certain  places  were  depopu- 
lated, some  of  the  people  in  their  panic  com- 
mitting suicide.  When  trading  agents  after- 
wards went  over  the  country  they  found  every 
house  empty  for  leagues  along  the  coast,  and 
it  was  computed  that  from  two  to  three  thou- 
sand died  of  the  distemper.  Egede  at  that 
time,  as  always,  showed  himself  a  true  friend 
to  the  Eskimos.  He  shrank  from  no  offensive 
and  wearisome  offices  of  kindness  in  their  be- 
half. This  epidemic  occurred  about  the  time 
that  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montagu  was  en- 
deavoring to  introduce  vaccination  into  Lon- 
don. Egede's  magnanimous  wife  at  length 
succumbs,  the  victim  of  overwork  and  philan- 
thropic   exposures    during    the    epidemic.      She 


250  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

died  at  the  close  of  1735.  Like  the  eider  fowl 
of  Greenland,  which  plucks  the  finest  down 
from  her  own  breast  to  furnish  a  warm  bed 
for  her  young,  so  was  Gertrude  Egede  a  self- 
sacrificing   mother   to   the   natives. 

The  dauntless  devotion  of  Egede  to  the 
work  he  had  undertaken  did  not  fail  to  win 
a  degree  of  favor  to  the  cause  in  Norway 
and  Denmark.'  But  what  were  the  spiritual 
results  of  the  mission  in  those  days  of  incip- 
iency  ?  Alas !  that  an  answer  no  more  cheer- 
ing can  be  given.  A  large  harvest  from  such 
soil  could  not  be  expected.  Egede's  motives 
were  undoubtedly  pure  and  his  aim  most 
praiseworthy,  but  by  necessity  his  position 
was  embarrassing.  As  we  have 
seen,  apparently  the  only  way  for 
him  to  reach  Greenland  and  have  the  prospect 
of  subsistence  there  was  to  organize  a  colony, 
and  the  basis  of  that  undertaking  on  the  part 
of  stockholders  and  colonists  was  a  commercial 
venture.  Its  originator  had  to  be  its  leader. 
Under  the  contract,  formal  or  implied,  he 
was  morally  bound  to  look  after  the  secular 
interests  of  those  who  had  assumed  pecuniary 
responsibilities.  It  was,  then,  a  formidable 
embarrassment  that  Egede  should  from  the 
first  feel  obliged  to  be  all  the  while  looking 
out  for  places   and   sources   of    more   profitable 

'  Note  62. 


HANS   EGEDE.  251 

trade  and  should  experience  constant  chagrin 
at  the  inadequate  financial  returns.  What  in 
the  way  of  religious  achievements  can  be 
expected  of  a  missionary  whose  thoughts  are 
occupied  largely  with  sealskins,  whalebone,  and 
blubber  ? 

Without  adverting  again  to  the  almost  in- 
surmountable impediments  of  climate,  to  im- 
pediments in  the  language  and  habits  of  the 
people,  which  are  likely  to  be  met  with  in  any 
barbarous  region,  we  must  notice  that  Egede 
was  not  fully  possessed  with  the  true  idea  of 
evangelization.  He  entertained  the  mistaken 
theory  that  civilization  must  precede  Chris- 
tianity. With  such  a  theory  no  one  will 
have  large  success  in  "  turning  men  from 
darkness  to  light  and  from  the 
power   of  Satan    unto    God."      Nor       J^ 

^  ,  Theory, 

with    such    a    theory     should     any 

large  success  be  looked  for  even  in  the  line 
of  mere  civilization.  The  quickest,  surest 
method  for  starting  a  savage  on  the  high 
road  of  mental  improvement  and  improve- 
ment in  social  relations  is  to  secure  the  lodg- 
ment in  his  soul  of  some  worthy  energizing 
thought.  And  what  impulse  can  be  so  mighty 
as  the  sense  of  personal  responsibilit}^  to  the 
holy  God,  the  sense  of  sin  with  its  penal 
consequences,  and  acquaintance  with  the  good 
news  of  free  grace  through  the  atoning  Lamb? 


252  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS. 

There  is  no  need  of  preparing  a  way  for  the 
gospel;  it  makes  a  way  for  itself  and  for 
everything  else  that  is  good.  Preliminaries 
not  having  immediate  and  direct  reference  to 
the  salvation  of  the  soul  are  no  more  required 
than  are  introductory  arrangements  before  re- 
pentance and  faith  can  become  obligatory  and 
can  be  suitably  pressed  upon  the  conscience. 
Breaking  down  superstition  does  not  neces- 
sarily introduce  vital  religion.  Of  all  health- 
ful forces  for  moving  man  in  the  career  of 
ennobling  civilization,  what  can  compare  with 
saving  faith?  The  truest  philanthropist  is  the 
one  wlio  determines  first  of  all  not  to  know 
anything  among  men  save  Jesus  Christ  and  him 
crucified,  and  who  accounts  himself  "debtor 
both  to  the  Greeks  and  to  the  barbarians." 
The  very  alpha  of  the  missionary's  office,  in 
the  tropics  or  at  the  poles,  is  to  deliver  the 
message  of  Him  who  has  sent  him,  "  Look 
unto  me  and  be  ye  saved,  all  the  ends  of 
the   earth." 

Egede  had  only  slight  success,  if  any,  in 
saving  souls.  His  heart  was  right,  but  his 
theory  defective.  The  natives  mimicked  and 
derided  —  than  which  is  there  anything  harder 
to  bear?  In  his  wearisome  and  unfruitful  toil 
it  would  have  been  very  singular  if  he  did  not 
sometimes  adopt  the  psalmist's  ejaculation,  "  O 
Lord,  how  long?"      Would  it   have   been  any- 


HANS    EGEDE.  253 

thing  strange  if,  like  John  Baptist  in  the  castle 

of    Machffirus    on    the    dreary   eastern    shore    of 

the    Dead   Sea,  Egede   in    his  icy  prison   during 

the     long    night    of     winter    should    sometimes 

grow    moody  ?      Fifteen     years    of    unremitting 

and   unrequited    labor    were   now    passed.      He 

preaches     his    farewell     sermon.      His     text    is 

(Isaiah    xlix :    4),    "  Then    I    said, 

I    have    labored    in    vain,    I    have      „  ^*  * 

Returns. 

spent  my  strength  for  nought, 
and  in  vain:  yet  surely  my  judgment  is  with 
the  Lord,  and  my  work  with  my  God."  In 
shattered  health,  taking  the  cherished  remains 
of  his  wife,  he  returns  to  Copenhagen.  The 
king  gives  him  an  audience,  makes  him  super- 
intendent (1740)  of  a  training  seminary  for 
the  mission,  and  confers  on  him  the  title  of 
Bishop  of  Greenland,  as  upon  his  son  after 
him.  He  wrote  a  narrative  of  his  enterprise,' 
and  died  (1758)  at  the  age  of  seventy-two. 
His  name  is  perpetuated  on  the  Greenland 
coast  in  the  name  of  a  settlement,  Egedeminde^ 
"Egede's  Memorial." 

"  A  failure  I "  ejaculate  the  unsympathizing. 
"What  good  came  of  it?"  they  ask  supercil- 
iously. That  all  expectations.  Christian  and 
secular,   were   not    realized   has    been   fully   ad- 


'  Relation  angaende  den  Gronlandske  Missions  Begyndelse  ag 
forslitelse.  Copenliagen,  1738.  Also,  Den  gamle  Gronland.  Co- 
penhagen,  174;l-4i. 


264  PKOTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

mitted ;  but  in  point  of  fact  this  noble  Nor- 
wegian headed  and  planted  what  has  proved 
to  be  a  permanent  colony,  and  that  too 
under  circumstances  more  disheartening  than 
have  been  met  by  any  similar  enterprise  in 
the  whole  range  of  colonial  history.  Greed 
was  never  his  motive,  nor  did  he  incur  any 
reasonable  censure  for  mismanagement.  With 
respect  even  to  commercial  interests  it  did 
not  become  worldly  Danes  to  speak  dispar- 
agingly of  this  private  enterprise,  conducted 
as  it  was  with  prudence,  energy,  and  more  of 
success   than  we  should  expect  considering  the 

obstacles  encountered.  How  was 
Heroism.        •■         ..i  •     ^^  i. 

it  With  a  similar  government  un- 
dertaking of  that  period?  One  Danish  com- 
mander lighting  upon  a  bank  of  Greenland 
sand  that  resembled  gold  fancied  that  his 
fortune  was  made.  Filling  his  ship  with  the 
supposed  treasure  he  sailed  for  Denmark,  revel- 
ing on  his  voyage  in  dreams  of  opulence.  In 
1728  four  or  five  Danish  ships  were  sent  out 
—  one  a  man-of-war  —  with  masons,  carpenters, 
and  other  handicraftsmen,  taking  artillery  and 
materials  for  a  fort  and  a  new  colony.  The 
officers  took  horses  with  them  to  ride  across 
the  country  and  over  the  mountains  with  a 
view  to  discovering  the  supposed  lost  colony 
of  the  eastern  coast.  Those  useless  animals 
soon    died.       The    soldiers    mutinied.      Neither 


HANS    EGEDE.  255 

the  governor  nor  the  missionary  was  safe,  for 
houses  of  correction  had  been  emptied  to  fur- 
nish the  colonists.  Egede,  who  before  could 
sleep  in  the  hovels  of  savage  Greenlanders, 
now  needs  a  guard  to  defend  his  bed  against 
the    attacks   of   Christian   fellow   countrymen. 

How  much  of  disaster  has  attended  nearly 
all  secular  enterprises  at  the  north ! '  Time 
was  when  the  Arctic  archipelago  might  be 
seen  studded  with  abandoned  sliips,  six  of 
them  left  in  the  ice  —  the  Investigator  at 
Mercy  Bay,  the  Resolute  and  Intrepid  at  Mel- 
ville Island,  the  Assistance  and  Pioneer  in 
Wellington  Channel,  and  the  Advance  in 
Smith's  Sound,  besides  the  Erebus  and  Terror, 
which  were   believed   to  have  been 

left  before  in   the    Strait  of  James     ^. 

Disasters. 

Ross.  In  Melville  Bay  more  than 
two  hundred  ships  have  already  perished. 
Superior  character  and  superior  skill  have 
not  sufficed.  Sir  John  Franklin  was  a  man 
of  piety,  so  were  Parry  and  Scoresby,  and 
though  more  than  one  ship's  company  have 
perished  of  cold  and  starvation  we  do  not 
pronounce  all  those  expeditions  unauthorized.^ 
While    one    chief  object   in   view   has   been  but 


'  Although  a  thousand  years  have  passed  since  Eric  the  Red 
discovered  Greenland  the  interior  remained  less  known  than  was 
the  interior  of  Africa  till  within  a  few  years. 

2  Sargent's  Arctic  Adventures,  p.  472. 


256  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

partially  accomplished  there  are  few  problems 
relating  to  the  physics  of  our  globe  —  atmos- 
pheric pressure,  electricity,  currents,  the  aurora, 
the  figure  of  the  earth  —  which  can  be  under- 
stood otherwise  than  by  an  observation  of  polar 
phenomena.  Important  benefits  have  accrued 
to  science  and  indirectly  to  commerce. 

Hans  Egede's  mission  was  not  a  failure. 
Weisfht  and  worth  of  character  are  measured 
by  something  else  than  success.  The  awards 
of  heaven  are  not  graduated  by  results,  but 
according  to  fidelit3\  "  Except,"  says  Dr. 
Geikie,  "except  that  the  ancestors  of  Egede 
perished  on  the  east  coast  of  that  most  dismal 
country,  and  that  its  unsurveyed  leagues  of  ice 
and  snow  were  figuratively  under  the  Danish 
flag,  we  know  of  no  claim  which  Greenland 
ever  had  upon  Danish  Christians."'  Not  so 
had  this  pious  man  learned  Christ,  nor  did 
he  thus  interpret  Providence.  He  had  been 
called  of  God  to  that  undertaking.  By  heed- 
ing the  divine  summons  he  accomplished  more 
for  Scandinavia,  more  for  mankind,  by  far 
than  he  could  have  done  among  the  rocks 
of  Vaagen.  He  was  a  debtor  to  those  north- 
ern barbarians,  and  obeying  the  divine  impulse 
he  became  a  historical  character.  His  noble 
example   is   felt    in   the    world   today    and   will 


*  Christian  Missions.    London,  1861.    P.  98. 


HANS    EGEDE.  257 

be  felt  to  the  end  of  time.  We  marvel  at  the 
obtuseness  that  fails  to  see  in  the  career  of 
this  humble  missionary  an  example  of  moral 
sublimity.  When  King  Frederick  had  just 
been  searching  for  Danish  subjects  qualified 
to  enter  upon  mission  work  in  India  with  its 
attractions,  and  had  to  solicit  recruits  from  a 
foreign  nationality,  a  young  pastor  on  the  rock- 
bound  coast  of  Norway  and  almost  within  hear- 
ing of  the  Maelstrom  was  meditating  on  the 
forlorn  condition  of  men  in  a  region  yet  more 
rugged.  The  King  of  kings  was 
giving  him  a  call.  He  could  not  n^^t"* 
clearly  interpret  the  summons  at 
first.  Circumstances  seemed  to  chain  him  to 
the  rocks  of  Vaagen.  At  length,  as  to  the 
strong  man  at  Lehi,  "  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord 
came  mightily  upon  him ; "  without  wavering 
he  toils  on  year  after  year  amidst  suspicion 
and  obloquy  for  the  privilege  of  expatriating 
himself  and  of  reaching  an  icy  home  that  he 
may  benefit  a  wretched  population.  Once  there 
he  endures  a  fifteen  years'  martyrdom  of  priva- 
tion, perils,  reproaches,  and  disappointments. 
He  has  the  genius  of  Christian  patience.'  Ir- 
resolution never  masters  him.  The  sternest 
realities  man  can  ever  meet  he  looks  in  the 
face  unterrified.  To  faith  in  Christ  there  are 
no   obstacles   that   cannot  be   overcome;    to   the 


'  Le  genie  c'est  la  patience.  —  Buffon. 


258  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

man  who  takes  counsel  of  duty  rather  than 
of  difficulty  there  are  no  impossibilities. 

Hans  Egede  pioneered  the  way  for  other 
missionaries,  Danish  and  Moravian.  By  his 
endurance  and  perseverance  he  showed  the 
capabilities  of  Christian  fortitude.  His  life 
at  the  north  changed  the  temperature  of  that 
continent  of  frost  for  all  time  to  come.  His 
example  is  no  coruscation  of  the  borealis,  but 
a  steady  beacon  light  to  guide  and  animate 
every  wavering  Christian  laborer  in  lands  less 
inhospitable.  Estimated  on  the  scale  of  mo- 
tives and  qualities  this  apostle 
Usefulness.  ,  i     i  •  •     • 

was    a     hero     and    his     mission    a 

triumph.  You  are  familiar  with  the  incident 
of  two  northern  travelers  lighting  upon  a  man 
at  the  point  of  freezing.  One  of  them  sprang 
to  his  relief,  raised  him,  half  buried  in  the 
snow,  chafed  him,  restored  warmth,  and  by 
the  rescue  of  a  benumbed  wanderer  brought 
himself  into  a  thorough  glow.  His  inactive 
companion,  wrapped  in  furs,  came  near  perish- 
ing from  cold.  So  is  it  with  communities,  and 
Norway  has  today  a  life  she  would  not  possess 
but  for  that  philanthropic  service  in  Greenland. 
Did  she  ever  produce  a  man  more  useful  to 
herself  than  Hans  Egede? 

The  mission  as  well  as  tlie  colony  established 
by  him  became  permanent.  After  a  century 
and  a  half  it  exists  today.     When  in  the  latter 


HANS    EGEDE.  259 

part  of  the  last  century  and  beginning  of  the 
present  the  Danish  church  at  home  had  be- 
come torpid  through  rationalism  this  mission, 
as  might  be  expected,  declined.  Since  then 
there  has  been  to  some  extent  a  favorable 
change;  yet  the  preachers  sent  out  from  Den- 
mark are  in  the  main  candidates,  not  of  the 
first  grade,  who  go  for  only  a  limited  time, 
five  to  eight  years,  who  do  not  usually  acquire 
the  language,  and  who  —  as  has  sometimes  been 
true  elsewhere  —  make  this  service  a  stepping- 
stone  to  some  more  attractive  benefice  at 
home.  It  is  to  be  acknowledged  that  the 
power  of  evangelical  Christianity  is  not  strik- 
ingly marked  in  the  character  and  habits  of 
the  native  people,  yet  decided  improvement 
has  taken  place;  the  community  has  become 
nominally  Christian.  In  Danish  Greenland 
proper  the  last  acknowledged  pagan  Eskimo 
died  some  years  since.  Most  of  the  people 
are  able  to  read  and  write,  and  here  is  one 
of  the  instances  of  a  rude  people  increasing 
instead  of  diminishing  by  contact  with  civili- 
zation and  superior  foreigners.'  The  Danish 
Government — to  its  special  honor  be  it  said — 
has  pursued  a  paternal  policy,  for  one  thing 
wisely  excluding  ardent  spirits,  that  destructive 
bane  among  so  many  rude  races. 


'  In  1789  the  population  was  only  5,122;  in  1872  it  had  become 
9,441. 


2G0  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

There  is  in  Greenland  singularly  one  warm 
spring,  with  a  uniform  temperature  of  a  hun- 
dred and  four  degrees  Fahrenheit ;  and  while 
most  of  the  birds  are  birds  of  prey  there  is 
one  bird  of  song,  the  linnet.  Such  are  the 
fountain  and  melody  of  our  holy  religion  in 
that  land  of  appalling  dreariness. 


XI 

MORAVIAN   MISSIONS. 


In  a  suburb  of  Constance,  near  where  the 
Rhine  leaves  the  lake,  stands  one  of  the  more 
appropriate  monuments  in  Europe.  It  is  a 
rude,  massive  bowlder  placed  on  the  spot 
where  more  than  four  and  a  half  centuries 
ago  John  Huss  and  Jerome  of  Prague  were 
burned  at  the  stake.  Few  incidents  of  foreign 
travel  ever  impressed  me  more  than  to  find 
on  the  morning  of  an  anniversary  of  the 
martyrdom  of  Huss  that  a  Prot- 
estant gentleman  from  Prague,  in  ^° 
Bohemia,  had  climbed  before  daybreak  over 
the  high  iron  fence  which  incloses  the  monu- 
ment and  with  a  wreath  of  fresh  immortelles 
had  crowned  the  memorial  rock.  John  Huss, 
the  true-hearted,  with  noble  simplicity  and  con- 
scientious firmness,  never  made  giddy  by  ap- 
plause nor  despondent  by  persecution,  a  re- 
former before  the  Reformation  and  a  Bohemian 
Brother  before  the  Unitas  Fratrum,  furnished 
an  impulse  and   type   of  that   movement   which 


262  PROTESTANT    MISSIONS. 

issued  in  the  colony  at  Herrnhut.  Between  his 
martyrdom,  in  July,  1415,  and  the  present  hour 
there  lie  two  noteworthy  eras  in  the  history  of 
the  United  Brethren  —  the  one  a  testimony  of 
endurance  under  cruel  oppression,  the  other 
achievements  of  signal  evangelism.  These  two 
eras  are  by  no  means  disconnected.  By  the 
evident  design  of  Providence  they  form  a 
coherent  whole.  The  roots  of  the  present 
always   lie   hid   in   the   past. 

One  of  two  results  usually  flows  from  severe 
trial ;  individuals  and  communities  either  en- 
feeble their  spiritual  life  by  pitying  themselves 
and  nursing  an  expectation  of  pity  from  others, 
or  else  active  benevolence  is  stimulated.  Suf- 
fering that  fails  to  make  a  man  or  a  church 
more  enterprising  in  the  way  of  Christian  phi- 
lanthropy, that  fails  to  ennoble  and  expand 
character,    fails    of    its    chief    end. 

Discipline,  j^  self-indulgent  inactivity  results 
decay  will  ensue.  Seldom  is  anj^  one  called  to 
notable  service  in  behalf  of  fellow  men  without 
some  severity  of  previous  discipline.  In  the 
pit  and  in  prison  Joseph  qualifies  to  become 
the  best  governor  Egypt  ever  had.  The  op- 
pression of  Pilgrims  and  Puritans  in  England, 
their  early  hardships  on  the  rugged  shores  of 
New  England,  and  their  subsequent  experiences 
in  war  contributed  to  that  character  which  has 
revealed   itself    in    missionary    movements    now 


MOKAVIAN    MISSIONS.  263 

constituting  the  truest  glory  of  our  land. 
Embarrassments  under  which  John  Eliot  and 
others  like  him  labored  in  the  mother  country 
and  the  condition  of  self-exile  to  a  wilderness 
made  them  all  the  more  ready  for  Christian 
effort  in  behalf  of  the  Indian.  Often  does  the 
baptism  of  fire  and  blood  seal  a  consecration 
to  high  and  far-reaching  aims.  On  the  anvil 
and  under  the  hammer  character  grows  broad. 
The  Hebrew  lad  sold  to  Ishmaelites  is  not  the 
only  instance  of  a  slave  effecting  vast  benefit 
to  others.  Was  it  not  in  the  divine  thought 
that  both  king  and  queen  of  the  Iberians 
should  be  converted  when  a  Christian  female 
in  the  fourth  century  was  carried  away  captive 
into  Asiatic  Georgia?  Was  it  not  in  order  to 
the  planting  of  Christianity  in  Abyssinia  that 
God  allowed  the  capture  by  fierce  natives  of 
two  Christian  youths,  one  of  whom  became 
the  first  bishop  in  that  countrj-?  During  all 
the  Moravian  experience  of  oppression  and 
bloodshed  He  who  seeth  the  end  from  the 
beginning  had  evidently  in  mind  salvation  for 
the  Eskimos  in  arctic  regions,  for  African 
slaves  in  tropical  West  Indies,  and  for  Hot- 
tentots  in   Africa. 

Having  prepared  a  volume  of  lectures  on 
Moravian  missions  I  shall  not,  of  course,  in  a 
single  chapter  attempt  much  of  detail,  but  only 
present  a  few  general  considerations   and    facts. 


264  PROTESTANT    MISSIONS. 

The  merit  of  a  revived,  collective  apprehension 
of  Christ's  great  aim  in  his  kingdom  on  earth 
belongs  to  the  Renewed  Church  of  the  United 
Brethren.  What  Wittenberg  was  to  Rome 
Herrnhut  became  to  Protestant  Christendom. 
In  modern  times  the  Moravian  Church  was 
the   first   as   a  church   and   at   the 

orayian      Q^^set    of    her    career     to    render 
Antecsdence. 

practical  in  her  life  a  just  con- 
ception of  what  Christianity  has  to  do  for  our 
world.  Individual  and  sporadic  efforts,  gov- 
ernmental and  colonial  movements,  in  the  line 
of  foreign  evangelism  had,  as  we  have  seen, 
taken  place,  yet  few  of  them  proceeded  upon 
the  basis  of  a  distinctly  recognized  duty  to 
give  the  gospel  to  the  heathen  as  heathen  and 
because  such  is  the  command  of  Him  who  died 
for  all. 

Reverting  once  more  to  the  low  countries  we 
gladly  accord  to  that  commercial  corporation, 
the  Dutch  East  India  Company,  a  laudable 
interest  in  supporting  ministers  of  the  gospe'i 
in  the  Asiatic  possessions  of  Holland  —  For- 
mosa, Ambojma,  Java,  and  Ceylon  —  and  that, 
too,  before  similar  movements  in  Great  Britain. 
The  main  impulse,  however,  proceeded,  as  we 
saw,  from  the  circumstance  that  Hollanders — 
government  servants  and  merchants — were  set- 
tled in  those  islands,  and  that  by  conquest  in 
the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century  native 


MORAVIAN  >nssiONs.  265 

peoples  had  come  under  Dutch  rule.  The 
method  of  evangelization  was  to  a  consider- 
able extent  unsatisfactory.  Not  a  little  coer- 
cion was  used.  Christianity,  instead  of  being 
introduced  into  the  heart  or  sometimes  even 
into  the  head,  was  imposed  upon  the  people. 
It  need  hardly  be  said  that  the  Reformed 
Church  of  the  Netherlands  was  very  far  from 
being  thoroughly  leavened  with  a  missionary 
spirit. 

In  England,  also,  societies  like  that  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts, 
whose  charter  bears  the  date  of  1701,  sprang 
primarily  from  a  desire  to  supply  British  col- 
onies with  clergymen,  catechists,  and  school- 
masters. Labor  in  behalf  of  heathen  in  and 
near  the  colonies  was  a  subordinate,  an  in- 
cidental, consideration.  Only  a  few  in  the 
Church  of  England  and  among  Dissenters  had 
dreamed  of  what  was  due  from  them  to  the  out- 
side pagan  world.  The  Congregational  churches 
of  New  England  in  the  last  half  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  came  nearer  than  any  others  of 
that  period  to  some  just  appreciation  of  the 
great  duty  owed  by  Christian  men  to  those 
who  sit  in  the  region  and  shadow  of  death. 
Their  sense  of  obligation,  as  has  been  shown, 
began  to  find  expression  during  the  decade 
from  1640-1650  in  labors  commenced  by  John 
Eliot    and    the     May  hews  —  labors    into    which 


266  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

others  also  entered  then  and  later.  But  the 
men  who  led  in  that  example  remained  pastors 
of  churches  composed  of  English  colonists,  so 
were  others  who  followed  their  example.  Ex- 
clusive devotion  by  any  Protestant  to  Christian 
work  among  the  Indians  in  that  century  was 
scarcely  known. 

The  little  kingdom  of  Denmark  having  ac- 
quired possessions  on  the  Coromandel  Coast 
of  India,  a  colonial  interest,  as  you  recollect, 
occasioned  the  mission  to  Tranquebar.  The 
originating  motive  of  Hans  Egede's  expedition 
to  Greenland  was  the  hope  of  finding  and 
ministering  to  supposed  descendants  of  Chris- 
tian Scandinavians  who  centuries  before  had 
settled  in  that  region  of  ice.  Those  associated 
with  him  in  the  enterprise,  except  his  noble 
wife  Gertrude,  were  at  the  outset  chiefly  in- 
fluenced by  the  prospect  of  a  remunerative 
trade.  But  those  early  Danish  missions  had 
only  a  feeble  hold  upon  the  Lutheran  Church 
of   Denmark  and  Norway. 

A  foreign  mission  as  we  now  understand 
that  term  —  a  movement,  simple  and  pure,  of 
Christian  men  entertaining  the  primary  purpose 
of  carrying  the  gospel  to  the  heathen  because 
they  are  heathen  —  was  scarcely  known  in  the 
Protestant  world  till  1732.  Just  eleven  years 
after  Egede  the  Norwegian  sailed  from  Bergen 
and   just   eleven    years    before   David   Brainerd 


MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  267 

betook  himself  to  Kaunaumeek  such  an  under- 
taking originated  at  Herrnhut. 

As  for  the  refugees  from  ancient  Egypt  there 
was  needed  a  counselor  and  lawgiver  of  emi- 
nent piety,  breadth  of  culture,  endowed  with 
the  qualities  of  a  statesman  and  prophet,  one 
educated  elsewhere  than  in  a  servile  condition, 
so  the  refugees  in  Upper  Lusatia  needed  a 
leader  with  far  different  training  from  what 
could  be  had  among  persecuted  artisans  of 
Bohemia.  Such  a  leader  was  in  preparation. 
Of  noble  birth,  by  marriage  connections  re- 
lated to  several  royal  families  on  the  Conti- 
nent, with  superior  endowments,  from  boyhood 
onward  moved  to  a  consecration  of  talents 
and  treasures  to  the  promotion  of 
evangelical  interests  at  home  and 
abroad.  Count  Zinzendorf  rises  to  our  view  as 
one  of  the  more  remarkable  characters  of  the 
last  century.  What  other  name  is  known  to 
ecclesiastical  annals  of  a  man  in  such  high 
social  position  who  at  an  early  period  of  life 
became  possessed  with  a  grand  Christian  idea 
so  foreign  to  men  of  his  rank  and  so  in  ad- 
vance of  his  age,  who  in  the  sanctified  ardor 
of  youth  entered  into  covenant  to  do  all  possi- 
ble for  the  cause  of  evangelization,  and  that, 
too,  among  those  most  neglected  by  others  — 
a  covenant  from  which  he  had  not  swerved 
when    at    threescore    (1760)    death    closed    his 


268  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

earthly  activities?  Gross  Hennersdorf,  German 
universities,  and  the  Saxon  court  furnished 
Herrnhut   with   a   Moses. 

But  what  of  the  period?  In  Germany  it 
was  to  a  sad  extent  a  period  of  scholasticism 
in  both  the  Lutheran  and  Reformed  Churches; 
a  period  of  bitter  theological  contests;  a  period 
of  sheer  orthodoxy,  evangelical  feeling  and  life 
having  largely  evaporated.  The  spurious  illu- 
minism  of  later  years  is  just  becoming  visible 
in  its  murky  dawn ;  the  philosophy  which 
brought  on  rationalism  is  making  its  early 
essays  to  dominate  revelation.  In 
^°^  '  the  person  of  Frederick  William  I 
there  sits  on  the  throne  of  Prussia  the  strangest 
compound  of  religiosity  and  violent  passion  that 
ever  wore  a  crown,  and  there  will  soon  be  a 
reaction  in  favor  of  French  tinsel  and  French 
infidelity. 

Pietism  distressed  by  the  petrifying  condi- 
tion of  the  religious  world  had  for  many  years 
been  striving,  and  with  a  measure  of  success, 
to  throw  off  the  stiff  bands  of  coufessionalism 
and  revive  a  Biblical  piety.  It  insisted  upon 
a  new  heart,  a  new  creature  in  Christ  Jesus, 
as  the  primary  need  of  every  man,  savage  or 
cultured,  and  then  of  a  warm  Christian  fellow- 
ship. But  in  its  reaction  from  torpor  pietism 
had  in  turn  somewhat  deteriorated;  it  was 
becoming    narrow,    concentrated    within     itself. 


MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  269 

and  censorious.  Some  good  men  of  the  Halle 
school  thought  Zinzendorf  could  not  be  a  child 
of  God  because  he  had  not  been  through  the 
penitential  struggle  after  their  pattern.  The 
excellent  men  who  gave  in  their  adhesion  to 
that  form  of  revived  religion  kept  themselves 
unduly  apart  from  the  rest  of  society;  they 
lacked  breadth;  their  theology  was  too  much 
a  theology  of  feeling  and  frames.  There  was 
needed  a  forth-putting  spirit,  a  spirit  of  enter- 
prise in  behalf  of  others,  an  element  which 
happily  did  enter  into  the  life  of  Moravianism. 
Herrnhut  became  indeed  a  tropical  island  in  a 
polar  ocean,  but  her  fruit  trees  were  destined 
to  be  transplanted.  The  two  leading  ideas  of 
church  existence — personal  culture  and  aggres- 
sion, growth  intensively  and  extensively,  each 
an  auxiliary  to  the  other  —  harmonized  in  the 
spiritual  temperament  of  the  United  Brethren. 

This  will  appear  all  the  more  noticeable 
when  it  is  considered  what  the  regimen  was 
which  Zinzendorf  introduced — an  isolated  com- 
munity, whose  municipal,  industrial,  and  social 
affairs  were  administered  by  church  authorities, 
no  outsider  to  hold  real  estate  or  to  have  resi- 
dence within  corporate  limits.  Such  a  system, 
continuing  still  in  Great  Britain  and  on  the 
continent  of  Europe,  though  relinquished  in 
this  country,  was  not  of  itself  as  a  polity 
suited    to    enlargement     or    perpetuity.      Were 


270  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

it  not  for  tlie  evangelistic  movement  outward 
to  the  farthest  lines,  local  and  social,  of  our 
race  Herrnhut  might  before  this  have  become 
an  entity  of  the  past.  The  well-defined  resto- 
ration of  a  primitive  missionary  element  sup- 
plied the  required  conserving  and  vital  force. 

The  main  question  evermore  confronts  us. 
What  is  a  man,  what  is  a  communion,  worth 
for  the  kingdom  of  God,  that  progressive  king- 
dom which  is  to  fill  the  earth?  Every  people 
as  well  as  every  individual  has  by  divine  ap- 
pointment an  office  to  perform,  a  niche  to  fill. 
The  function  of  Moravianism  has  been  to  em- 
body and  illustrate  before  the  eyes  of  Protes- 
tants the  harmony  of  Christian  life  at  home 
centers  and   evangelistic   energy   abroad. 

In  every  great  undertaking  or  discovery 
chief  merit  pertains  to  priority.  To  Herrnhut 
belongs  the  credit  of  having  as  a  church  taken 
the  lead,  beginning  her  missions  in  1732,  and 
having  persisted  therein  amidst  the  religious 
apathy  and  growing  rationalism  of  the  last 
century  and  the  early  part  of  our  present  cen- 
tury. The  year  1732  was  the  year  in  which 
Voltaire  published  his  Lettres  Philosophiques, 
and  the  grinning  infidel  had  only  too  much 
occasion  to  chuckle  over  the  fact  that  Vernet, 
a  Protestant  minister  at  Geneva,  w^as  insisting, 
not  upon  the  necessity,  but  the  utility,  of 
our  holy  religion!     It  will  be  remembered,  too, 


MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  271 

that  besides  Moravianism  there  was  another 
remarkable  manifestation  of  the  spiritual  re- 
vival, which  began  with  Spener's  Collegia 
Pietatis  two  hundred ,  years  ago.  It  was  Wes- 
leyanism.  The  pietistic  wave  struck  Great 
Britain,  and  its  marvelous  result  is  second 
only  to  the  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. That,  however,  in  its  organization  and 
its  foreign  missionary  movement  was  later  by 
a  generation  than  Herrnhut  and  was  in  some 
measure  an  outgrowth  of  Herrnhut. 

The  question  arises.  What  was  the  distinc- 
tive element  out  of  which  sprang  the  move- 
ment that  marks  1732  a  red-letter  year  in 
missionary  annals?  That  element  was  an  un- 
usually fervent  love  to  our  Saviour.  I  will 
not  pause  to  speak  of  infelicities  in  the  poetic 
imagery  of  an  early  Moravian  era,  particu- 
larly  in   the    Sifting   Period.     Of 

,     ,  ,  ii     .•        Motive  Power, 

what   account   are   mere    aesthetic 

blemishes  as  against  the  substantial  and  more 
important  features  of  vital  piety?  Why  should 
they  even  be  alluded  to  —  as  is  often  done, 
and  sometimes  discreditably  —  when  the  denom- 
ination has  sloughed  them  off  and  repudiated 
them?  I  repeat,  one  marked  characteristic  of 
the  Brethren's  Church  and  the  fountain  of  her 
remarkable  missionary  zeal  is  warmtli  of  loyalty 
to  Him  who  is  Head  of  the  Church.  I  am  not 
aware  that  since  primitive  days  any  communioa 


272  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

of  believers  have  as  a  body  in  such  marked 
manner  and  so  uniformly  kept  the  eye  upon 
the  Lamb  of  God  who  taketh  away  the  sin  of 
the  world.  Thence  has  come  the  inspiration 
which  makes  a  Moravian  community  in  its  best 
days  so  free  from  pomp,  noise,  and  worldliness, 
from  the  greed  of  gain  and  honor;  which  sheds 
the  charm  of  simplicity  and  cheerfulness  over 
social  life,  over  religious  worship,  over  death 
and  the  resting  place  of  the  dead  —  a  charm 
restful  and  refreshing,  that  abides  even  in  the 
most  repulsive  regions  of  foreign  missionary 
toil.  Every  evangelical  church  possesses  in 
some  measure,  of  course,  a  genuine  affection 
for  our  Lord;  but  as  Faraday  has  shown 
that  a  dormant  magnetism  exists  in  all  metals, 
which  will  become  apparent  only  at  a  certain 
temperature,  so  in  some  Christian  bodies  there 
is  required  a  degree  of  rare  religious  fervor  to 
make  it  apparent  that  charity  abides  there.  It 
must  be  said  that  this  virtue,  with  some  alter- 
nations of  vigor,  has  been  eminently  cultivated 
by  the  United  Brethren,  among  whom  there 
has  never  prevailed  a  Christless  Christianity, 
nor  Christ  without  the  cross,  nor  the  cross 
without  the  resurrection.  Philosophy  under- 
takes no  foreign  missions;  she  will  never  quit 
her  groves  of  Academus.  Little  would  it  avail 
if  she  did.  Mere  philanthropy  will  not  take 
men    into   unevangelized   regions.      No    reliance 


MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  273 

for  reclaiming  the  race  can  be  had  save  upon 
those  who  discover  that  on  the  cross  justice 
and  mercy  harmonize,  who  become  so  pene- 
trated by  the  love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus 
that  they  "cannot  but  speak  the  things  which 
they  have  seen  and  heard."  The  place  where 
they  shall  witness,  whether  among  kindred  at 
home  or  heathen  at  the  ends  of  the  earth,  is 
a  matter  of  comparative  indifference  so  the 
Master  makes  his  pleasure  plain.  The  excel- 
lent Charles  Simeon,  of  Cambridge,  kept  a 
portrait  of  Henry  Martyn  in  his  study,  which 
seemed  to  be  all  the  while  saying,  "Be  ear- 
nest, be  earnest ;  don't  trifle,  don't  trifle ; " 
and  Simeon  would  say,  "  Yes,  I  will  be  ear- 
nest, I  will  be  earnest;  I  will  not  trifle,  for 
souls  are  perishing  and  Jesus  must  be  glori- 
fied." Missionaries  of  the  United  Brethren 
have  for  the  most  part  kept  the  eye  on  a 
countenance  more  commanding,  more  lovely, 
"looking  unto  Jesus,  the  author  and  finisher 
of  our   faith." 

Such  being  the  case,  what  might  be  expected 
of  Moravian  missionaries  with  regard  to  their 
fields  of  remote  and  arduous  labor?  Just  what 
we  find  —  that  they  go  forth  not  so  much  in 
the  service  of  the  Unitas  Fratrum  as  from 
personal  obedience  to  the  Lord  Jesus,  because 
his  express  command  brings  to  them  an  un- 
transferable   duty    and    because    the    pledge    of 


274  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

his  perpetual  presence  they  know  will  be  re- 
deemed; just  what  we  find  —  that  in  their 
peculiarly  trying  experience  they  are  kept 
hopeful  and  cheerful  by  the  lively  conscious- 
ness of  that  union,  which  is  so  intimate  that 
if  a  member  be  wounded  here  on  earth  the 
Head  in  heaven  feels  it.  By  experience  as 
well  as  by  the  Word  of  God  are  they  taught 
that  spiritual  life  does  not  spring  up  out  of 
native  depths  in  man's  soul,  but  comes  down 
from  Christ  into  individual  hearts ;  that  saving 
knowledge  is  not  revealed  by  flesh  and  blood, 
but  is  something  divinely  imparted 
ns  lan     ^i^^^.]^   finds   its  wav   to   the  center 

Loyalty.  _  ^ 

of  one's  being  and  there  masters 
the  man;  and  how  can  they  do  otherwise  than 
lift  up  the  cross  to  the  gaze  of  sin-smitten 
man?  Thanks  that  Zinzendorf  inculcated  the 
"theology  of  blood,"  his  own  expression;  thanks 
that  Francke,  his  teacher,  taught  "a  drop  of 
faith  is  more  noble  than  a  whole  sea  of  sci- 
ence, though  it  be  the  historical  science  of  the 
divine  Word."  There  are  only  two  systems 
of  salvation  —  every  man  his  own  saviour  or 
no  man  saved  by  himself  alone.  What  other 
ground  of  peace  and  hope  for  the  guilty  is 
there  besides  Calvary,  that  focus  of  the  uni- 
verse? The  expiatory  and  propitiatory  cross 
is  the  appointed  place  for  friendly  meeting  be- 
tween  God   and  man,  heaven   and  earth.     Only 


MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  275 

from  the  cross  waves  the  white  flag  of  truce. 
Deeply  penetrated  with  a  conviction  of  this 
truth  missionaries  of  the  United  Brethren  have 
started  out,  never  questioning  the  universal 
need  or  the  universal  adaptation  of  the  gospel. 
They  have  held  with  peculiar  distinctness  that 
the  Greek  is  no  better  fitted  to  receive  the 
gospel  and  to  enter  heaven  by  his  speculation, 
and  that  the  barbarian  is  no  less  fitted  by  his 
rudeness;  that  there  is  no  aristocratic  salva- 
tion; that  Christianity  is  no  more  designed 
for  Philemon,  the  wealthy  master,  than  for 
Onesimus,  the  bond  servant;  that  it  is  suited 
to  man  as  man,  whatever  his  language,  color, 
kindred,  or  country  —  suited  to  every  existing, 
every  conceivable,  type  and  grade  of  civiliza- 
tion and  of  degradation ;  hence,  believing  as- 
suredly that  for  spiritual  vision  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness  is  equally  indispensable  and 
equally  adapted  to  every  eye,  whether  that 
organ  be  blue  or  black  or  whatever  its  shade. 
"  God  hangs  great  weights  on  small  wires," 
says  an  Oriental  proverb.  The  truth  thus 
homely  expressed  has  been  illustrated  in  Mo- 
ravian missions.  It  has  been  maintained  by 
the  supreme  Ruler  from  the  first.  Objects, 
places,  and  instruments  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  purposes  more  intimately  relating  to 
his  spiritual  kingdom  have  usually  been  chosen 
with   apparent    reference   to    staining   the   pride 


276  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

of  human  glory.  Is  the  angel  Jehovah  to 
appear  signally  to  Moses?  It  will  not  be  in 
the  tall  cedar  or  terebinth,  but  in  a  burning 
bush.  By  the  vision  of  a  barley  loaf  prostrat- 
ing a  tent  among  the  host  of  Midian  is  fore- 
shadowed what  the  little  band  under  Gideon 
will  accomplish.  Would  we  behold  the  eternal 
Word  made  flesh  and  come  to  dwell  among 
us?  Shepherds  will  be  our  guides  and  we 
look  into  a  stable.  The  first  to  announce  his 
ceremonial  presence  at  the  temple  will  be  an 
aged  widow;  the  first  to  herald  his  resurrec- 
tion, a  humble  woman.  This  law,  of  which 
we  are  so  often  reminded  in 
the  history  of  the  Church,  is 
one  which  our  countrymen  have  special  need 
to  ponder.  We  are  addicted  to  an  idolatry  of 
bulk.  We  boast  of  great  lakes,  great  rivers, 
great  spaces,  as  if  these  things  would  make 
a  nation  great,  whereas  the  aggregate  of  little 
things  is  usually  greater  than  the  aggregate  of 
great  ones.  It  would  require  a  larger  chasm 
to  hold  all  the  coral  insects  of  our  world 
than  all  the  elephants,  and  what  those  animal- 
cules accomplish  is  of  more  importance  in  the 
economy  of  nature  than  the  huge  quadrupeds 
of  Asia  and  Africa  together.  Pride  of  jjigness 
fails  to  consider  that  dwelling  among  superior 
magnitudes  only  makes  conceit  and  vanity  the 
more   glaring.      Is   it   not    time    for    us   to   give 


MORAVIAN    MISSIONS.  277 

thought  rather  to  the  busy  bee  than  to  the 
spread  eagle?  Go  to  the  ant — architect,  sol- 
dier, political  economist;  consider  her  ways 
and  be  wise.  Was  it  the  vast  territory  of 
Scythia  or  little  Attica  that  furnished  states- 
men, philosophers,  poets,  and  historians  who 
have  been  models  to  the  rest  of  the  world  ? 
Was  it  in  populous  Peking  or  in  Bethlehem 
Ephratah,  little  among  the  thousands  of  Ju- 
dah,  where  the  Lord  of  glory  appeared  in 
human  form  ?  It  is  great  and  good  ideas 
associated  with  energy  that  make  a  man  or 
a  people  truly  great.  That  alone  which  re- 
veals the  divine,  that  which  is  knit  to  a 
noble  future,  knit  to  eternity,  ranks  really 
high.  Humble  instrumentalities  and  grand  ulti- 
mate consequences  disclose  the  strength  and 
skill  of  the  mighty  One  of  Israel.  Was  the 
size  of  Moses'  rod  wherewith  he  brought  water 
from  the  rock  of  any  account?  The  human 
following  and  force  of  our  Lord  at  first  were 
only  a  few  fishermen,  a  few  women,  and  a  few 
children. 

Let  us  travel  back  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
two  years  to  the  Hutberg  at  Herrnhut  in 
Lusatia.  Casting  an  eye  at  the  neighboring 
hamlet  we  see  no  imposing  architecture,  nor 
in  society  or  worship  any  imposing  forms. 
The  place  has  had  existence  for  only  ten 
years.       A     majority     of    the     inhabitants     are 


278  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

exiles,    poor     and    not     highly    educated,    with 

two  or  three  exceptions  not  high  born,  planted 

and  permitted  on  this  spot  rather  by  sufferance 

than    with    the    good   will    of    any   government. 

Among    them    is    a    young    man    from    Suabia, 

twenty-seven   years   of   age,   a   potter   by   trade. 

One     night     in     July,    1731,     he     is     sleepless. 

What    keeps    him    awake?     There   was   once   a 

young   man    at   Athens  who  said  the   trophy  of 

Miltiades  would  not  let  him  sleep ;   is  any  such 

ambition    at   work    here  ?      A    thought   from   on 

high  has  been  received,  a  holy  ardor  is  kindled 

in   his   soul.      No   such   little   affair   as   that    of 

Marathon    fills    his    mind;     per- 
Herrnhut,  1732.  ,  -,.  , 

sonal     aggrandizement     has     no 

place.  Amidst  night  watches  his  heart  turns 
toward  benighted  slaves  in  the  West  Indies, 
and  his  purpose  is  formed — he  will  carry  the 
news  of  salvation  to  Africans  in  bondage. 
There  has  for  some  time  been  a  prayer  meet- 
ing at  Herrnhut  every  evening,  and  he  is 
always  present.  A  remarkable  season  of  re- 
freshing from  on  high  four  years  ago  stood 
evidently  connected  with  his  prayers  and  those 
of  his  immediate  associates.  He  was  at  the 
meeting  when  Count  Zinzendorf  spoke  of  the 
condition  of  West  India  slaves,  also  when 
Anthony,  the  black  man  from  St.  Thomas, 
told  the  story  of  his  dark-minded  countrymen 
and  of  his  sister,  who  had  some  desire  to  know 


MORAVIAN    MISSIONS.  279 

the  way  of  life.  The  thought  of  saving  one 
soul  prepares  this  young  brother  for  any  sacri- 
fice. The  cross  of  Christ  is  the  trophy  that 
will  not  let  Leonard  Dober  sleep  that  night. 
The  next  day  he  finds  that  his  friend  Tobias 
Leupold  was  similarly  affected  at  the  same 
time  with  himself  by  the  same  circumstances 
and   has   been   moved   to    the   same   resolution. 

In  missionary  annals  similar  coincidences  not 
unfrequently  present  themselves,  and  such  a 
coincidence  usually  marks  an  epoch.  The  year 
1644  furnishes  an  example.  John  Eliot  began 
his  study  of  the  Indian  language  and  Thomas 
Mayhew,  encouraged  by  the  conversion  of 
Hiacoomes,  was  preparing  for  Christian  labors 
in    the    vernacular    of    Martha's   Vineyard,   but 

the    undertakings    of    those    two 
,  ,  ..        .     ,  Coincidences, 

devout  men  were  quite  inde- 
pendent of  each  other.  Seventeen  hundred 
and  ninety-five  yields  an  illustration.  Dr. 
Bogue  was  supplying  the  pulpit  of  the  Tab- 
ernacle in  Bristol,  England;  Dr.  Ryland,  of 
that  city,  received  letters  from  the  Baptist 
missionaries  in  Bengal  and  sends  for  Dr. 
Bogue,  who  belongs  to  a  different  denomina- 
tion, to  hear  them  read.  Then  they  kneel 
and  pray  together,  and  the  thought  occurs 
to  Dr.  Bogue  that  it  was  most  desirable  and 
might  be  practicable  to  unite  Christians  of  dif- 
ferent   denominations   for    missionary    purposes. 


280  PROTEST AKT   MISSIONS. 

That  was   the   germ  of  the  London    Missionary 
Society. 

We  return  to  Herrnhut.  Leiipold  writes  a 
letter  to  the  congregation  communicating  the 
desire  of  himself  and  Dober  to  become  mis- 
sionaries. By  the  public  reading  of  that  let- 
ter two  more  young  men,  Matthew  Stach 
and  Frederick  Bohnisch,  are  simultaneously 
impressed,  resolve  to  offer  themselves  for  serv- 
ice in  Greenland,  and  next  year  will  be  on 
their  way  thither.  The  very  atmosphere  of 
Herrnhut  is  becoming  quick  with  the  evan- 
gelistic element.  The  delay  of  a  twelvemonth 
only  confirms  the  resolution  of  Dober.  It  has 
taken  time,  though  far  less  time 
...    /  ^  .  than    is    usual,    to    convince    the 

Missionaries.  ' 

Moravian  Church  that  the  scheme 
is  neither  a  wild  one  nor  premature.  Martin 
Linner,  the  worthy  chief  elder  of  the  congre- 
gation, an  invalid,  has  set  his  heart  on  having 
Dober  succeed  him  in  office  and  cannot  bear 
to  have  him  leave.  Generally  the  best  men 
suited  for  foreign  service  are  most  needed  at 
home. 

The  day  for  departure  is  at  hand.  David 
Nitschmann,  who  after  awhile  will  be  ordained 
as  the  first  bishop  of  the  Renewed  Church  of 
the  United  Brethren,  and  chiefly  with  a  view 
to  furthering  the  cause  of  missions,  has  been 
selected     to    accompany    Dober.      Leave-taking, 


MORAVIAN    MISSIONS.  281 

with  prayer  and  singing,  is  over.  No  laudatory 
speeches  are  made,  no  torchlight  procet^^iuns 
take  place.  The  morning  of  August  21,  1732, 
dawns;  no,  it  has  hardly  dawned.  At  three 
o'clock  they  start  northward,  Count  Zinzendorf 
taking  them  some  miles  on  their  way  to  Baut- 
zen. Thence  they  set  out  —  a  potter  and  a 
carpenter,  with  a  small  bundle  in  hand  and 
less  than  four  dollars  each  in  the  pocket  —  for 
a  journey  of  six  hundred  miles  on  foot,  and  at 
the  end  of  that  journey  they  will  still  be  four 
thousand  miles  from  the  place  of  destination. 

Chimerical !  preposterous !  exclaim  the  un- 
thinking. Pause  a  moment.  Into  the  soul 
of  that  man  whose  trade  is  to  work  in  clay 
there  has  come  a  spark  from  heaven.  It  has 
kindled  a  flame,  clear,  calm,  steady.  Since 
primitive  times  he  is  the  first  missionary  to 
African  slaves.  He  is  the  first  Protestant 
missionary  to  the  heathen  of  tropical  America. 
At  Herrnhut  he  has  not  been  argued  out  of 
his  convictions;  at  Copenhagen  stories  of  can- 
nibalism will  not  frighten  him  out  of  his  pur- 
pose, nor  will  he  be  wearied  out  of  it  by  the 
refusal  of  every  Danish  shipmaster  to  take 
him  to  St.  Thomas.  On  the  long  pedestrian 
journey  from  Lusatia  to  Denmark  all  profess- 
ing Christians,  save  one,  laugh  at  the  potter 
and  carpenter  or  else  pity  them;  and  that 
one,    the    appreciative    Countess    von    Stolberg, 


282  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

represents  just  about  the  proportion  of  persons 
then  on  the  Continent  who  would  be  likely 
to  estimate  aright  the  motives  and  aims  of 
these   men. 

There  are  some  who  can  declaim  well  on  the 
subject  of  universal  brotherhood ;  there  always 
have  been  such.  Even  heathen  poets  could  get 
off  fine  sentiment  now  and  then,  Seneca  say- 
ing,' "I  was  not  born  for  one  corner;  this 
whole  world  is  my  country;"  Lucan  professing 
to  believe  that  he  was  born,^  "not  for  himself 
solely,  but  for  all  mankind."  Yet  which  of 
them  ever  lifted  so  much  as  a  finger  for  phil- 
anthropic purposes?  And  of  all  the  thousands 
in  evangelical  Europe  on  the  twenty-first  of 
August,  1732,  how  many  were  moving  toward 
the  heathen  world  in  obedience  to  Christ's 
command?  Just  two  men,  who  have  bidden 
good-by  to  Herrnhut  long  before  sunrise  —  men 
who  have  taken  in  the  simple  distinctive  idea 
of  evangelization  and  in  whom  that  means 
something  else  than  stay  at  home.  They  head 
a  long  line  of  quiet,  unostentatious  laborers  of 
the  Unitas  Fratrum^  who  have  knocked  at 
frozen  doors  for  permission  to  proclaim  the 
love  of  Jesus;  who  have  traversed  regions 
where   the   sun   shineth   in   his   strength,  foUow- 


*  Non  sum  uno  angulo  natus ;  patria  mea  totus  hie  est  mundus, 
^  Nee  sibi,  sed  toti  gentium  se  credere  mundo. 
3  Note  63. 


MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  283 

ing  in  tracks  most  familiar  to  the  tornado  and 
to  the  pestilence  that  walketh  in  darkness ; ' 
who  in  the  face  of  the  brand  and  the  toma- 
hawk have  gone  with  a  song  in  the  heart 
and  on  the  lips.  Not  unfrequently  have  they 
had  precedence  on  given  foreign 
fields.^'     While  David  Brainerd  was        ^.  . 

ticism. 

still  a  freshman  at  Yale  Moravian 
missionaries  devoted  themselves  to  a  portion 
of  the  Delaware  tribe.  They  reduced  the  lan- 
guage to  writing  and  printed  a  number  of 
works,  religious  and  of  an  educational  charac- 
ter. For  a  century  and  a  half  have  they  in 
various  languages  made  cultivated  plantations, 
primeval  forests,  and  dreary  wastes  vocal  with 
the  hymn  of  Zinzendorf, 

"Jesus,  thy  blood  and  righteousness," 

and  Paul  Gerhardt's, 

"0  Head,  so  full  of  bruises!" 

Chiefly  it  is  to  men  on  the  outer  verge  of 
moral  and  social  hopelessness  that  they  have 
gone,  yet  not  primarily  to  civilize  them;  not 
so  much  to  make   Moravians   as  to  make  Chris- 


'  Note  54. 

^One  instance  is  that  of  labor  in  behalf  of  the  Cherokees, 
which  was  begun  by  Steiner  and  Byhan  in  1801,  eleven  years 
before  the  American  Board  sent  men  to  Bombay  and  sixteen 
years  before  the  Board  established  a  mission  among  that  tribe. 


284  ritOTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

tians ;  not  mere  reformation,  but  salvation,  is 
their   great   aim. 

Civilization  never  saves,  may  fail  altogether 
of  preparing  for  Christianity.  Christianity 
never  fails  to  bring  civilization  in  its  train. 
The  United  Brethren  have,  indeed,  every- 
^Yhere  introduced  schools  and  industrial  arts, 
but  the  hiding  of  their  missionary  power  is 
in  the  cross  of  Christ.  Studiously  and  wisely 
have  they  abstained  from  intermeddling  with 
political  affairs ;  theirs  is  not  the 
gospel  of  intrigue.  Largely  toiling 
for  self-support  they  have  yet  seldom  become 
secularized.  Most  courageously  have  they  as 
a  general  thing  kept  to  their  work.  Purloin- 
ing the  fruit  of  other  men's  labors,  welcoming 
the  disciplined  members,  and  employing  the  re- 
jected native  helpers  of  neighboring  missions 
are  not  chargeable  upon  them.  What  though 
physical  science  has  not  been  their  forte;  what 
though  no  great  invention  or  discovery,  no  epic 
poem  or  popular  romance,  has  emanated  from 
them ;  theirs  is  a  work  unspeakably  higher  on 
the  scale  of  the  Messianic  kingdom — winning 
souls   to    Christ   and   fitting   them   for   glory. 

With  rare  persistence  have  they  clung  to 
their  purpose.  Does  a  backslidden  Indian 
leave  the  mission  settlement  and  wander  into 
the  wilderness?  A  youthful  Moravian  follows 
him   into    the   forest,  finds   him   at   length,  tells 


MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  285 

him  it  is  in  vain  he  flees ;  were  he  to  go  hun- 
dreds of  miles  he  would  still  pursue  him.  The 
Indian's  heart  melts.  "Do  the  brethren  re- 
member me  still?  Are  you  come  merely  to 
seek  me?"  and  he  weeps  in  bitter  contrition. 
Thousands  upon  thousands  of  converts  are  the 
more  than  golden  reward  of  such  perseverance. 
Numberless  are  the  witnesses  like  a  dying 
Eskimo  girl.  "O  Redeemer!"  she  exclaims, 
raising  her  wasted  hands  toward  heaven,  "  O 
Redeemer!  how  is  it  that  when  I  hear  of 
thee  I  cannot  refrain  from  tears?  As  the 
eider  fowl  to  the  rock,  so  cleaveth  my  soul 
to   thee!" 

August  21,  1732!  Not  Yorktown  or  Water- 
loo ;  not  Aboukir  or  Trafalgar ;  not  the  birth- 
day of  king  or  empress,  but  the  birthday 
of  a  movement  having  grandeur  in  that  only 
kingdom  which  shall  flourish  forever.  Once 
more  I  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
influence  of  a  country  or  a  community  upon 
the  destinies  of  our  race  has  little 
respect  to  its  geographical  extent.  "^"^ 
It  was  a  land  whose  greatest  length  was  about 
the  same  as  the  distance  from  New  York  to 
Boston,  and  whose  entire  area  did  not  exceed 
one  half  that  of  Missouri,  which  saved  Europe 
from  the  desolating  invasion  of  Persian  hordes. 
Venice  was  never  more  influential  than  when 
her    territory    on    the    mainland    was    less    than 


286  PROTESTANT    MISSIONS. 

one  square  mile.  Within  seven  years  from 
August  21,  1732,  Herrnhut  sent  out  ten  dif- 
ferent missions  —  than  which  is  there  any  fact 
in  the  whole  range  of  evangelistic  history 
more  noteworthy?'  From  that  obscure  radi- 
ating point  in  Central  Europe  missions  have 
been  established  on  each  of  the  five  other 
continents,  yet  to  the  present  day  Herrnhut 
is  a  settlement  of  only  one  thousand  souls. 
If  other  Protestant  churches,  the  older  and 
the  younger,  had  been  equally  prompt  and 
in  proportion  to  numbers  equally  devoted 
to  this  cause,  instead  of  sleeping  on  obliv- 
ious to  what  is  due  to  the  unevangelized, 
equipped  with  so  small  an  amount  of  infor- 
mation and  so  large  a  supply  of  objections, 
Zion  would  be  seen  to  have  arisen,  her  light 
being  come  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  being 
risen  upon  her.  Had  that  been  done  Jesuits 
would  not  be  glorying  in  their  priority  of 
missionary  zeal,  nor  would  the  heathen  world 
be  now  flinging  back  reproaches  upon  Chris- 
tendom for  her  unpardonable  tardiness;^  the 
Karen   would   not    have   put   to   the   missionary 


'  It  is  said  that  not  long  since  a  Moravian  functionary  called 
at  the  office  of  the  East  Africa  Company  in  Berlin  to  solicit 
some  facilities  for  the  new  missions  on  the  lakes.  His  request 
was  cordially  granted,  and  he  was  invited  in  to  see  the  directors. 
After  a  little  pleasant  chat  one  of  the  gentlemen  asked  him 
whether  the  Moravian  Church  had  ever  carried  on  a  mission 
before!  —  Missionari/  Review,  March,  1894,  p.  231. 

'Note  55. 


MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  287 

the  questions:  "If  so  long  a  time  has  elapsed 
since  the  crucifixion  of  Christ  why  has  not 
this  good  news  reached  us  before?  Why  have 
so  many  generations  of  our  fathers  gone  down 
to  hell  for  want  of  it?*'  nor  would  the  New 
Zealand  mother  have  held  up  her  last  living 
child  to  a  missionary,  exclaiming,  "  If  j'ou 
had  come  before  and  brought  me  the  gospel 
I  should  not  have  murdered  my  twelve  other 
children  !  " 

At  the  present  time  there  are  one  hundred 
and  thii-ty-seven  mission  stations  and  more 
than  seventy  affiliated  or  out  stations  in  var- 
ious parts  of  the  earth.  They  are  found 
widely  distributed  through  all  latitudes,  from 
arctic  and  sub-arctic  regions  of 
frigid  Laborador,  and  Alaska  Forces 
through  Indian  resei'vations  in 
North  America,  through  tropical  West  Indies 
and  the  mainland  of  Central  and  South 
America;  from  the  snowy  heights  of  Tibet 
to  Australia  and  to  South  and  East  Central 
Africa.  In  those  fields  are  more  than  four 
hundred  and  sixty  missionaries,  sixty-two  of 
them  natives.  In  their  day-schools  there  are 
over  twenty-three  thousand  pupils.  Under  their 
care  are  not  far  from  thirty-two  thousand  com- 
municants— about  the  same,  including  children, 
as  in  their  home  churches.  The  Moravian  for- 
eign field  counts  ninety-seven  thousand  adherents. 


288  PROTESTANT   MISSIONS. 

nearly  two  and  one-lialf  times  the  whole  number 
in  home  churches.'' 

Gladly  do  we  place  a  wreath  on  the  mon- 
ument of  John  Huss,  on  the  monument  of 
every  martyr  and  faithful  missionary;  yet  will 
we  never  forget  that  in  the  burning  fiery  fur- 
nace of  Bohemia  there  was  One,  and  under 
scorching  rays  of  the  tropics  there  now  is 
One,  like  unto  the  Son  of  God;  that  amidst 
the  long  winter  of  Greenland  and  Labrador 
near  by  those  humble  missionary  dwellings 
are  footsteps  which  leave  no  print  on  the 
snow.  Before  him  we  cast  all  crowns,  saying, 
"Thou  art  worthy,  O  Lord,  to  receive  glory, 
and   honor,  and   power !  " 

Since  the  founding  of  Herrnhut  Mora- 
vians have  been  singularly  free  from  self- 
assertion.  Talking  but  little  they  have  done 
nobly.  There  is  no  proof  of  practicability 
like  a  practical  illustration.  The  demonstra- 
tions   which     Columbus    made     with     the    egg 

and    with     his     fleet     settled     two 
The  Lesson.     , ,  .  ^  rm  .     . 

things     forever.       ihe     missionary 

operations  of  the  Unitas  Fratrum  during  the 
eighteenth  century  were  a  rebuke  and  at 
length  an  incitement  to  the  rest  of  Protes- 
tant    Christendom.       Though     a     silent    factor 


'  Moravian  home  missions  are  not  here  included.  Diaspora 
stations  are  found  in  Norway,  Sweden,  Denmark,  Russia, 
Poland,  Germauy,  Switzerland,  and  the  United  States. 


MOKAVIAN   MISSIONS.  289 

they  were  an  important  factor  in  starting 
the  evangelistic  movements  which  began  in 
Great   Britain   a   hundred   years   ago. 

We  do  well,  indeed,  to  render  devout  thanks 
for  what  is  now  being  done  in  behalf  of  peo- 
ples unevangelized  or  supplied  only  with  a 
decayed  Christianity.  In  contemplating  more 
than  sixteen  thousand  missionaries,  nearly  six 
thousand  main  stations,  S3venty-nv'3  thousand 
native  helpers,  and  nearly  fourteen  hundred 
thousand  communicants  scattered  through  the 
wide  world  we  behold  the  mightiest  of  agen- 
cies engaged  in  a  work  more  sublime  and 
destined  to  an  issue  more  triumphant  than 
an)'  other.  But  undue  relative  magnifying 
of  the  present  is  an  undeserved  reflection 
upon  the  past.  Great  streams  are  fed  by 
remote  rills.  The  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries  made  contributions  without  which 
the  wealth  of  the  nineteenth  would  be  want- 
ing. The  Persians  say  "Ispahan  is  half  the 
world ; "  Oriental  ignorance  and  Oriental  ar- 
rogance are  yet  more  unseemly  in  Western 
Europe   and   in   this   Western   World. 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX 


Note  1.  —  Page  10.  Sundry  mistakes  regarding  this  move- 
ment have  been  put  forth  :  "  After  consultation  with  the  other 
pastors  of  Geneva  he  [Calvin]  sent  two,  Guillaurae  Chartier  and 
Pierre  Richier,  who  were  afterwards  joined  by  several  others." 

—  Newcomb's  Cyclopedia  of  Missions, p.  325.  "Geneva  sent  two 
clergymen  and  fourteen  students  to  accompany  the  colonists." 

—  Newcomb's  Cyclopedia  of  Missions,  p.  726.  "  The  church  of 
Geneva  as  early  as  1556  inaugurated  foreign  missions  by  send- 
ing a  company  of  fourteen  missionaries  to  Rio  de  Janeiro  in 
hope  of  being  able  to  introduce  the  reformed  religion  into 
Brazil."  —  McClintock  and  Strong's  Cyclopcedia,   VI,  p.  356. 

Note  2.  —  Page  17.  Geddes,  Michael:  History  of  the 
Church  of  Ethiopia.  London,  1696.  La  Croze,  Maturin 
Veyssiere :  Histoire  au  Christianisme  D'Ethiopie  et  D'Armeine. 
A  la  Haie,  1739.  P.  322.  Hotten,  John  Camden:  Abyssinia 
and  its  People.  London,  1868.  At  the  end  a  bibliography  of 
more  than  two  hundred  works  relating  to  Abyssinia.  Thirsch, 
H.  W.  J. :  Abyssinia.  Translated  by  Sarah  M.  S.  Pereira. 
London,  1886.  Bent,  J.  Theodore:  The  Sacred  City  of  the 
Ethiopians.     London,   1893. 

Note  3.  —  Page  30.  "The  churches  there  being  so  hap- 
pily planted  and  watered  and  having  divers  pastors,  teachers, 
and  overseers  set  over  them."  — 1643,  Campbell's  Missionary 
Success  in  the  Island  of  Formosa,  I,  p.  41.  "In  the  course  of 
thirty-seven  years  twenty-nine  ordained  men  labored  in  For- 
mosa.    One   or   more  of    them   and  also   some   of    the   Dutch 


294  APPENDIX. 

Bchoolraasters  proved  to  be  unworthy  of  the  service."  — 
Campbell's  Missionary  Success  in  the  Island  of  Formosa,  I,  pp. 
69,  70. 

Note  4.  —  Page  31.  It  has  never  been  easy  to  obtain 
access  to  the  archives  of  that  company,  and  no  adequate 
history  of  early  evangelistic  operations  by  the  Dutch  in 
the  East  has  been  written.  A  thorough  and  candid  investi- 
gation of  original  sources  is  much  to  be  desired. 

Note  5.  —  Page  32.  "Because  a  residence  of  three  or 
four  years  only  is  not  admissible  and  better  not  be  under- 
taken at  all,  as  he  could  not  become  familiar  with  the  lan- 
guage in  so  short  a  time,  whereas  in  ten  or  twelve  years  he 
could  attain  to  a  complete  mastery  of  it."  —  Letter  of  Can- 
didius  the  missionary  in  Missionary  Success  in  Formosa,  pp.  72,  73. 

Note  6. — Page  .34.  "The  Dutch  governor  told  him  [Cap- 
tain Gardiner]  that  he  might  as  well  try  to  teach  the  monkeys 
as  the  Papuans,  and  the  Dutch  clergy  gave  him  very  little 
encouragement." — C.  M.  Yonge's  Pioneers  and  Founders. 
London,   1874.      P.   272. 

Note  7.  —  Page  53.  It  was  not  till  the  first  quarter  of 
the  present  century  that  American  notices  of  Eliot  began  to 
give  his  alleged  birthplace.  The  name  given  varies  thus: 
Nasin,  Nasing,  Nazing,  Nazeing,  in  the  county  of  Essex. 
Later  his  birth  was  credited  to  Little  Baddow  in  the  same 
county.  Within  the  last  twelvemonth  Dr.  Ellsworth  Eliot, 
of  New  York  City,  has  announced  the  discovery  of  the  date 
of  the  baptism  of  his  ancestor  the  apostle  Eliot  as  recorded 
at  Widford,  county  of  Hertford.  In  the  parish  register  of  the 
Church  of  St.  John  Baptist  at  that  place  the  record  is  as 
follows:  "John  Elliott,  the  Sonne  of  Bennett  Elliott,  was  bap- 
tized the  fyfte  daye  of  Auguste,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  God 
1604."  Among  the  marriages  is  that  of  his  parents,  Bennett 
Eliot  and  Letteye  Aggar,  the  thirtieth  of  October,  1598.  The 
late  Archbishop  Richard  Whately  was  baptized  at  the  same 
font  and  Charles  Lamb  often  worshiped  in  the  same  church 
—  a  venerable  building,  parts  of  which  date  probably  from 
the   Norman  period,  eigiit   hundred  years   ago.      Through  the 


APPENDIX.  296 

efforts  of  Dr.  Ellsworth  Eliot  and  the  Rev.  John  Travis  Lock- 
wood,  rector,  a  memorial  window  has  been  introduced  into  the 
Church  of  St.  John.  Tlie  inscription  reads :  "  To  the  glory  of 
God  and  in  pious  remembrance  of  John  Eliot,  A.  B.  Cantab, 
called  '  the  apostle  to  the  Indians/  who  was  baptized  in  this 
church  August  5,  1604;  emigrated  to  New  England  A.D.  1610, 
and  died  in  Roxbury,  Massachusetts,  May  21,  1696.  This 
window  was  erected  by  his  descendants  A.D.  1894.  'The 
righteous  shall  be  in  everlasting  remembrance.'"  The  dedica- 
tion of  the  window  took  place  on  the  twenty-first  of  May  of 
the  year  (1894),  the  then  American  minister  at  the  court 
of  St.  James,  His  Excellency  the  Hon.  T.  F.  Bayard,  being 
present. 

Note  8.  —  Page  53.  Through  the  courtesy  of  Robert  N. 
Gust,  LL.D.,  of  London,  and  of  IL  A.  Morgan,  master  of 
Jesus  College,  Cambridge,  I  have  lately  received  the  follow- 
ing transcript  from  the  register  of  that  college,  to  which  the 
copyist  adds  two  memoranda,  one  of  them  relating  to  Eliot's 
Bible : 

"  1622  Mail  die  XV°  Johannes  Eliott  [sic]  habuit  licentiam 
sibi  concessam  petendi  gratiam  ab  universitate  ad  respondendum 
quaestioni  spondente  M"""  Beale." 

"  Mr.  Beale  was  his  tutor,  a  fellow  of  the  college.  The 
'license'  is  equivalent  to  what  we  call  a  supplicat  which  the 
college  gives  to  qucEstionis  proceeding  to  the  B.A.  degree  (see 
Mullinger's  History  of  University  of  Cambridge,  Vol.  1,  p.  852)." 
"John  Eliot  presented  to  the  college  a  copy,  now  in  our 
library,  of  his  version  of  the  Bible  in  the  Indian  language. 
Title : 

'The    Holy    Bible 

containing  the 

Old    Testament 

AND  THE  New 

Translated   into   the 

Indian  Language 

&c 

Cambridge 

Printed  by  Samuel  Green  and  Marmaduke  Johnson 

MDCLXIII' 


/ 


296  APPENDIX. 

"  On  the  fly-sheet  in  his  handwriting  ' 

'Pro  Collegio  Jesu 

Accipias,  mater,  quod  alumnus  humillimus  offert 

Filius,  oro  preces  semper  habere  tuas 

Johannes  Eliot.' " 

Mr.  Morgan  remarks :  "  I  observe  that  in  the  life  given  of 
him  in  tlie  Encyclopcedia  Brilannica  it  is  stated  that  he  took  his 
bachelor's  degree  in  162J,  but  in  Leslie  Stephen's  Biographical 
Dictionary  in  1622,  and  the  latter  date  is  without  doubt  correct. 
Tiicre  was  a  Thomas  Eliot  at  this  college  who  took  his  degree 
in  January,  1624  —  which  in  those  days  counted  as  1623  —  and 
this  I  think  must  have  led  to  mistakes  as  to  when  John  Eliot 
took  his."  It  should  be  added  that  the  Whiting  portrait  of 
Eliot  is  not  well  authenticated. 

Note  9.  —  Page  57.  Major-General  Gookin,  a  candid,  con- 
scientious acquaintance,  testifies  :  "  The  truth  is,  Mr.  Eliot  en- 
gaged in  this  great  work  of  preaching  unto  the  Indians  upon 
a  very  pure  and  sincere  account ;  for  I  being  his  neighbor  and 
intimate  friend  at  the  time  wlien  he  first  attempted  this  enter- 
prise, he  was  pleased  to  communicate  unto  me  his  design  and 
the  motives  that  induced  him  thereto,  which,  as  I  remember, 
were  principally  these :  First,  the  glory  of  God  in  the  conver- 
sion of  some  of  these  poor  desolate  souls ;  secondly,  his  com- 
passion and  ardent  affection  to  them  as  of  mankind  in  their 
great  blindness  and  ignorance ;  thirdly,  and  not  the  least,  to 
endeavor,  so  far  as  in  him  lay,  the  accomplishing  and  fulfill- 
ing the  covenant  and  promise  that  New  England  people  had 
made  unto  their  king  when  he  granted  them  their  patent  or 
charter,  viz.,  that  one  principal  end  of  their  going  to  plant 
these  countries  was  to  communicate  the  gospel  unto  the  native 
Indians."  "It  doth  evidently  appear  that  they  were  heroic, 
noble,  and  Christian  principles  that  induced  this  precious  serv- 
ant of  Christ  to  enter  upon  this  work,  and  not  any  carnal  or 
by-ends ;  for  in  these  times  nothing  of  outward  encouragement 
did  appear." 

Note  10.  —  Page  60.  "During  a  religious  interest  among  a 
tribe  in  Rhode  Island,  conducted  in  part  by  white  men,  who,  of 


APPENDIX.  297 

course,  used  the  English  language  while  most  of  the  Indians 
still  employed  their  native  tongue,  an  Indian  female  became 
very  deeply  interested  for  her  salvation.  She  seemed  to  have 
embraced  the  notion  since  Cliristianity  had  been  brought  to  her 
people  through  the  English  tongue  that  it  was  to  be  sought 
through  the  medium  of  that  language.  She  feared  God  would 
not  listen  to  her  rude,  pagan  speech.  The  few  converted  Indians 
had  acquired  some  knowledge  of  the  English.  She,  however, 
had  learned  to  pronounce  but  one  word  —  the  word  'broom.* 
Her  anxiety  became  intense.  Her  Christian  countrymen  ex- 
horted her  to  pray.  She  felt  a  deep  desire  to  pray,  but  knew 
not  how  to  pray  as  she  supposed  she  ought  since  she  could  not 
employ  the  acceptable  tongue.  At  last  the  demands  of  her  soul 
and  the  strivings  of  the  divine  Spirit  so  far  overcame  her  that, 
throwing  herself  into  the  attitude  of  a  suppliant,  she  cried 
aloud,  '  Broom  !  Broom  !  Broom  ! '  God  answered  her  heart 
instead  of  her  lips,  and  instantly  filled  her  soul  with  light  and 
love  and  tlie  joys  of  his  salvation.  She  rose  up  to  shout  his 
praise,  and  ever  afterwards  served  him  in  a  pure  and  joj'ful 
^  life."  —  Rev.  Frederick  Denison,  in  Westerly  and  its  Witnesses. 
P.  80. 

Note  11. — ^Page  70.  A  resident  about  the  time  referred 
to  says:  "Boston  is  two  miles  northeast  from  Roxberry.  Hia 
situation  is  very  pleasant,  hemmed  in  on  the  south  side  with 
the  bay  of  Roxberry,  on  the  north  side  with  the  Charles  River, 
the  marshes  on  the  back  side  being  not  half  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
over,  so  that  a  little  fencing  will  secure  their  cattle  from  the 
wolves."  "  It  being  a  neck  and  bare  of  wood,  they  are  not 
troubled  with  three  great  annoyances,  of  wolves,  rattlesnakes, 
and  mosquitoes." — William  Wood,  in  New  England's  Prospect. 
Published  at  London,  16.34. 

Note  12.  —  Page  78.  Such  is  the  spelling  of  his  name  by 
the  man  himself  in  a  deed  dated  April  3,  1692.  On  the  grave- 
stone the  inscription  reads  :  "  Here  lyes  the  Body  of  Takawomb- 
pait,  aged  64  years.    Died  September  the  17th,  1716." 

Note  13.  —  Page  79.  General  Gookin  says  :  "  We  being  at 
Wabquissit,  at  the  Sagamou's  wigwam,  divers  of  the  principal 


298  APPENDIX. 

people  that  were  at  home  came  to  us,  with  whom  we  spent 
a  good  part  of  the  night  in  prayer,  singing  psahns,  and  exhor- 
tations." 

Note  14.  —  Page  79.  Eliot  owed  not  a  little  to  his  wife, 
a  very  capable  and  excellent  woman.  The  first  marriage  re- 
corded in  tlie  town  records  of  Roxbury  was  that  of  John  Eliot 
and  Hannah  Mumford  (or  Mountford,  or  Mountfort),  4th  Sep- 
tember, 1032.  But  James  Savage,  in  the  Genealogical  Dictionnry 
of  the  First  Settlers  in  New  England,  Vol.  II,  says  tliat  date  can- 
not be  correct,  as  the  ship  in  which  the  bride  elect  came  did  not 
arrive  till  twelve  days  after  that. 

Among  the  descendants  of  Eliot  are  persons  of  note : ' 

Rev.  Joseph  Eliot,  settled  at  Guilford,  Conn.,  1664,  was  the 
only  son  of  the  apostle,  whose  posterity  now  living  bear  the 
family  name. 

Rev.  Jared  Eliot,  D.D.  and  M.D.,  of  Killingworth,  Conn., 
now  Clinton,  a  son  of  Joseph,  was  a  man  of  mark  in  his  day,  on 
intimate  terms  with  Franklin,  and  a  correspondent  with  learned 
men  in  the  old  world. 

Charles  Wyllys  Elliott  (1817-1883),  author  of  several  works. 

Among  descendants  not  bearing  the  name  of  Eliot  was  Hon. 
Josiah  Quincy,  LL.D.,  president  of  Harvard  College,  and  others 
of  that  distinguished  family. 

The  late  Samuel  A.  Eoote,  governor  of  Connecticut,  United 
States  senator,  etc. 

Mrs.  Susan  Huntington,  wife  of  Rev.  Joshua  Huntington,  of 
Boston,  whose  memoir  was  published. 

Dr.  Elisha  Mitchell,  professor  in  the  North  Carolina  Uni- 
versity, for  whom  Mt.  Mitchell,  the  highest  point  of  land  east  of 
the  Mississippi,  was  named,  and  on  whose  summit  his  remains 
rest. 

Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  born  in  the  year  1790,  taking  rank 
among  the  poets  of  our  country.     He  died  in  1867. 

Mrs.  Ethelinda  Eliot  Beers  (1817-1879),  who  wrote  "The 
Picket  Guard,"  "All  Quiet  Along  the  Potomac,"  and  who  died 
the  day  her  collected  poems  were  issued.    Philadelphia. 


I  Oenealogy  of  the  Eliot  Family.    By  William  N.  Eliot.    Kevised  by 
William  S.  Porter.    New  Haven,  1854. 


APPENDIX.  299 

Henry  C.  Bowen,  Esq.,  proprietor  of  the  New  York  Inde- 
pendent. His  native  place,  "Woodstock,  Conn.,  was  first  named 
New  Roxbury.  Not  far  from  his  country  seat  In  that 
town  is  the  rock,  on  Plain  Hill,  from  which  Eliot  preached  to 
Indians  of  a  September  morning  in  1674.  His  text  was,  "  Seek 
ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness,  and  all  these 
things  shall  be  added  unto  you."  From  the  years  184.3-1858 
there  were,  at  different  times,  seven  members  of  the  Eliot 
Church,  Roxbury,  Mass.,  who  were  descendants  of  John  Eliot. 

Note  16. —  Page  87.  The  Rev.  Jonathan  Mayhew,  D.D., 
pastor  of  the  West  Church  in  Boston  (1747-1766),  a  son  of  Ex- 
perience Mayhew,  had  one  daughter,  Elizabeth,  who  married 
Peter  Wainwright,  an  Englishman.  Their  son,  Jonathan  May- 
hew Wainwright,  became  bishop  of  the  diocese  of  New  York, 
1852. 

Note  16.  —  Page  88.  Experience  Mayhew,  writing  in  Octo- 
ber, 1651 :  "  There  are  one  hundred  ninetie-nine  men,  women, 
and  children  that  have  professed  themselves  to  be  worshippers 
of  the  great  and  everliving  God.  There  are  now  two  meetings 
kept  every  Lord's  Day,  the  one  three  miles,  the  other  about 
eight  miles  off  my  house :  Hiacomes  teacheth  twice  a  day  at 
the  nearest,  and  Mumanequem  accordingly  at  the  farthest ;  the 
last  day  of  the  week  they  come  unto  me  to  be  informed  touch- 
ing the  subject  they  are  to  handle." 

Note  17.  —  Page  89.  Hubbard  says,  "  But  the  greatest 
appearance  of  any  saving  work  and  serious  profession  of 
Christianity  amongst  any  of  them  was  at  Martin's  [Martha's] 
Vineyard,  which,  beginning  in  the  year  1645,  hath  gradually 
proceeded  till  this  present  time,  wherein  all  the  island  is  in  a 
manner  leavened  with  the  profession  of  our  religion,  and  hath 
taken  up  the  practice  of  our  manners  in  civil  behaviour  and 
our  manner  of  cultivating  the  earth." 

Note  18.  —  Page  91.  Experience  Mayhew  in  the  preface 
to  his  work,  Indian  Converts,  says,  "Though  I  could  have  men^ 
tioned  many  of  our  Indians  who  have  discovered  very  probable 
signs  of  true  repentance  in  the  time  of  their  last  and  long  sick- 
nesses, many  of  them  dying  of  chronical  diseases;  yet,  consider- 


300  APPENDIX. 

ing  the  doubtfulness  of  a  deathbed  repentance,  I  have  not  put 
any  into  my  catalogue  of  penitents  in  whom  a  remarkable 
change  did  not  appear  while  they  were  well  and  in  health." 

Note  19.  —  Page  98.  The  statement  of  Dr.  Sereno  E. 
Dwight  in  his  edition  of  Edwards'  works  (Vol.  I,  p.  449)  is  in- 
correct, 80  far  as  concerns  Sergeant's  use  of  the  language  in 
preaching  :  "  Mr.  Sergeant  devoted  much  of  his  time  to  the 
study  of  their  language  (tlie  Mohnkaunew),  yet  at  the  close  of 
his  life  he  had  not  made  such  progress  that  he  could  preach 
in  it,  or  even  pray  in  it,  except  by  a  form." 

Note  20.  —  Page  118.  Professor  Tholuck  writes  :  "It  may 
be  said  that  even  among  us  more  awakenings  have  proceeded 
from  the  written  lives  of  those  eminent  for  piety  than  from 
books  of  devotion  and  printed  sermons.  We  are  able,  at  least 
in  the  circle  of  our  own  knowledge,  to  address  a  great  number 
of  Christians  —  and  among  them  names  of  the  first  rank  in  the 
religious  world  —  who  are  indebted  essentially  to  works  of  biog- 
raphy for  the  confirmation  and  stability  of  their  spiritual  life. 
The  writer  can  assert  this  in  regard  to  himself.  He  can  make 
such  an  acknowledgment  respecting  a  book  to  which  he  knows 
that  not  a  few  in  Europe,  America,  and  Asia  will  bear  a  similar 
testimony.  The  biography  of  the  missionary  Martyn  —  the  man 
who  even  among  the  Persian  Mohammedans  was  known  only  as 
the  holy  —  opened  also  in  my  own  Life  a  new  era  of  religious 
progress."  —  Sonntags  Bibliothek, 

Note  21.  —  Page  122.  "  My  soul  was  full  of  tenderness  and 
love,  even  to  the  most  inveterate  of  my  enemies."  "  I  longed 
that  those  who,  I  have  reason  to  think,  owe  me  ill  will  might 
be  eternally  happy.  It  seemed  refreshing  to  think  of  meeting 
them  in  heaven,  how  much  soever  they  had  injured  me  on 
earth;  had  no  disposition  to  insist  upon  any  confession  from 
them  in  order  to  reconciliation  and  the  exercise  of  love  and 
kindness  to  them." 

Note  22.  —  Page  124.  "  God  sanctified  and  made  meet 
for  his  own  use  that  vessel,  which  he  made  of  large  capacity, 
having  endowed  him  with  very  uncommon  abilities  and  gifts 
of  nature.     He   was  a   singular  instance   of  ready  invention, 


APPENDIX.  301 

natural  energy,  ready  flowing  expression  and  sprightly  appre- 
hension, quick  discerning,  and  a  very  strong  memory,  yet  of  a 
Tery  penetrating  genius,  clear  thought,  and  piercing  judgment." 
—  Edwards'  Sermon  at  Brainerd's  Funeral. 

Note  23.  —  Page  128.  Kaunaumeek  was  sixteen  miles  east 
from  Albany  and  about  five  miles  northwest  from  New  Leba- 
non. Brainerd's  Bridge,  its  present  name,  is  a  small  village  in 
Rensselaer  County,  N.  Y.,  which  received  that  nnme  not  from 
David  Brainerd,  but  from  Jeremiah  Brainerd,  a  relative  of  his 
who  settled  there  and  built  a  bridge  across  Kinderhook  Creek. 

Note  24.  —  Page  138.  "  One  man  considerably  in  years,  who 
had  been  a  remarkable  drunkard,  a  conjurer,  and  a  murderer, 
and  was  awakened  some  months  before,  was  now  brought  to 
great  extremity  under  his  spiritual  distress,  so  that  he  trembled 
for  hours  together,  and  apprehended  himself  just  dropping  into 
hell  without  any  power  to  rescue  or  relieve  himself."  "  I  stood 
amazed  at  the  influence  which  seized  the  audience  almost  uni- 
versally." "Towards  night  the  Indians  met  together  of  their 
own  accord,  and  sung,  and  prayed,  and  discoursed  of  divine 
things  among  themselves,  at  which  time  there  was  much  affec- 
tion among  them."  Was  there  an  eagerness  to  learn  divine 
truths?  "They  are  so  unwearied  in  religious  exercises,  and 
insatiable  in  their  thirsting  after  Christian  knowledge,  that  I 
can  sometimes  scarcely  avoid  laboring  so  as  greatly  to  exhaust 
my  strength  and  spirits." 

How  about  Sunday  and  social  worship  ?  "  The  Lord's 
Day  was  seriously  and  religiously  observed,  and  care  taken 
by  parents  to  keep  their  children  orderly  upon  that  sacred 
day ;  and  this,  not  because  I  had  driven  them  to  the  perform- 
ance of  these  duties  by  frequently  inculcating  them,  but  be- 
cause they  had  felt  the  power  of  God's  Word  upon  their 
hearts,  were  made  sensible  of  their  sin  and  misery,  and 
hence  could  not  but  pray  and  comply  with  everything  which 
they  knew  to  be  their  duty  from  what  they  felt  within 
themselves." 

Note  25.  —  Page  142.  "  I  this  day  met  with  them  and 
the   Indians   of   this   place.      Numbers  of   the  latter  probably 


302  APPENDIX. 

could  not  have  been  prevailed  upon  to  attend  this  meeting 
had  it  not  been  for  these  religious  Indians,  who  accompanied 
me  hither  and  preached  to  them.  Some  of  those  who  had  in 
times  past  been  extremely  averse  to  Christianity  now  behaved 
soberly,  and  some  others  laughed  and  mocked  "  (February  17). 
"  My  people  of  Crossweeksimg  continued  with  them  day  and 
night,  repeating  and  inculcating  the  truths  I  had  taught  them, 
and  sometimes  prayed  and  sung  psalms  among  them." 

Note  26.  —  Page  144.  He  speaks  often  of  "wrestling"  with 
the  Lord ;  of  intercession,  fervent  intercession,  as  a  delight. 
"Just  at  night  the  Lord  visited  me  marvelously  in  praj'er. 
I  think  my  soul  never  was  in  such  an  agony  before.  I  felt 
no  restraint,  for  the  treasures  of  divine  grace  were  opened 
to  me.  I  wrestled  for  the  absent  friends,  for  the  ingathering 
of  souls,  for  multitudes  of  poor  souls,  and  for  many  that  I 
thought  were  the  children  of  God,  personally,  in  many  dis- 
tant places.  I  was  in  such  an  agony  from  sun  half  an  hour 
high  till  near  dark  that  I  was  all  over  wet  with  sweat."  " () 
that  the  kingdom  of  the  dear  Saviour  might  come  with  power, 
and  the  healing  waters  of  the  sanctuary  spread  far  and  wide 
for  the  healing  of  the  nations  ! " 

Note  27.  —  Page  147.  In  the  cemetery  at  Northampton  the 
grave  of  Brainerd  is  not  far  from  the  entrance.  On  it  rests 
a  slab  of  red  sandstone,  and  on  this  rests  another  similar 
slab  two  feet  higher,  supported  by  fluted  pillars,  now  weather- 
beaten.  In  the  upper  center  is  a  marble  slab,  inserted  in  a 
socket,  on  which  appears  this  inscription: 

"Sacred  to  the 

memory    of   the 

Rev.    David    Braikerd, 

a  faithful  and  laborious 

missionary  to  the 
Stockbridge,  Delaware, 

and  Susquehannah 

Tribes    of   Indians. 

Who    died    in    this    town 

Oct.  10,  1747. 

JEU  32." 


APPENDIX.  303 

The  corners  of  the  main  upper  slab  have  been  chipped 
off,  probably  by  pilfering  relic  hunters.  A  former  marble 
tablet,  bearing  the  same  inscription  as  the  one  now  seen,  had 
been  chipped  and  ruined  in  the  same  way.  Yet  even  that 
was  not  the  original  one.  Mr.  Seth  Pomeroy,  some  years 
since,  stated  at  a  public  meeting  that  the  cavity  was  first 
filled  by  a  leaden  tablet,  which  had  been  removed  during  the 
War  of  the  Revolution  and  run  into  bullets  for  use  at  the 
blockade  of  Boston.  The  age  given,  "thirty-two  years,"  is  an 
evident  mistake.  Brainerd,  having  been  born  April  20,  1718, 
and  having  died  October  9,  1747,  lived  only  twenty-nine  years 
and  nearly  six  months.' 

Note  29.  —  Page  152.  Studiosi  Danici  non  idonei  sunt  ad 
hoc  opus :  illi  dediti  sunt  luxuriae,  crapulae,  ignavae,  scortation- 
ibus.  See  Germann :  Ziegenbalg  und  Pliitschau,  p.  47.  Well 
for  the  heathen  that  such  men  did  not  offer  their  services. 

Note  30.  —  Page  162.  "Indeed,"  writes  Ziegenbalg,  "in 
the  three  years  I  have  been  in  India  I  have  scarcely  read  a 
German  or  a  Latin  book,  but  have  given  up  all  my  time  to 
reading  Malabar  books ;  have  talked  diligently  with  the  hea- 
then, and  executed  all  my  business  in  their  tongue,  so  that 
now  (1709)  it  is  as  easy  to  me  as  my  mother  tongue,  and  in 
the  last  two  years  I  have  been  enabled  to  write  several 
books  in  Tamil." 

Note  31.  —  Page  163.  Tracy's  History  of  the  American 
Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions,  p.  114,  where  a 
mistaken  statement  is  added,  that  it  was  also  the  first  from 
the  neighborhood  of  Calcutta  on  the  east  to  the  shores  of 
the  Mediterranean  on  the  west. 

Note  32.  —  Page  167.  Later  (1714)  the  society  had  occa- 
sion to  write  to  Tranquebar,  making  the  timely  suggestion, 
"We  do  not  doubt  that  your  work  has  been  made  much 
easier  to  you  by  the  printing  press  which   you   are   now  ar- 


>  Styles  gives  the  date  of  Brainerd's  death  as  Friday,  October  6, 
instead  of  Tuesday,  October  9,  1747. 


304  APPENDIX. 

ranging,  but  take  care  that  you  are  not  inconsiderately  led 
into  so  much  translation  and  printing  that  you  do  not  find 
sufficient  time  for  constant  intercourse  with  the  heathen." 
Under  the  skillful  superintendence  of  Mr.  P.  R.  Hunt,  for- 
merly of  the  American  Board  (1840-1866)  at  Madras,  the 
missionary  press  in  that  city  stood  at  the  head  of  its  class 
in  India.    Tamil  and  Telugu  typography  was  much  improved. 

Note  33.  —  Page  170.  Besides  his  translations  of  Scrip- 
ture the  following  works  were  published:  1.  Allgemeine  Schule 
der  wahren  Weisheit.  Frankfurt  und  Leipzig,  1710.  2.  Aus- 
fiihr,  Bericht  wie  er  das  Amt  des  Evangelii  unter  den  Ileiden 
und  Christen  fiikre.  4  Aus.,  Hallae,  1735.  3.  Grammatica 
Damulica.  Hallae,  1716.  4.  Brevis  Delineatio  Missionis  operis. 
Tranquebar,  1717.  5.  Numerous  extended  reports  of  mis- 
sionary labor.  Remaining  in  manuscript :  1.  Der  Gottgefiillige 
Christenstand.  2.  Der  Gottgefallige  Lehrstand.  3.  Bibliotheca 
Malaharica.  4.  Beschreihung  des  Malabarischen  Heidenthums. 
6.  Genealogie  der  M alaharischen  Gutter.  6.  Drei  Moralienbiich- 
lein.      7.    Mehere  kleine  ascetische  Schriften  in  einem  Fascikel. 

Note  34.  —  Page  173.  In  a  sermon  entitled  "The  Joyful 
Sound  Reaching  to  Both  the  Indies  "  the  author  says,  "  While 
our  supplications  to  our  Father  are  thus  engaged  we  shall 
remember  our  dear  brethren  of  the  Danish  mission  so  far  as 
Malabar,  the  good  news  of  whose  amiable  enterprises  have 
been  as  cool  waters  to  our  thirsty  souls." — India  Christiana, 
a  discourse  to  the  Commissioners  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gos- 
pel among  American  Indians,  by  Cotton  Mather,  D.D.  Boston, 
1721. 

Note  35.  —  Page  183.  After  his  intercourse  with  the 
people  and  princes  of  Tanjore  had  begun  —  the  latter  being 
descendants  of  the  Mahratta  conquerors  —  "I  learned,"  he 
states,  "at  the  request  of  the  king,  the  Mahratta  language, 
into  which  I  translated  a  dialogue  between  a  Christian  and  a 
heathen,  composed  by  me  in  the  Malabar  tongue"  —  that  is 
the  Tamil,  for  thus  did  the  early  missionaries  mistakenly  des- 
ignate that  language.  This  was  tlie  beginning  and  the  end 
of   Schwartz's   labor  in    the   line   of  authorship.    Miss  Yonge 


APPENDIX.  306 

remarks  justly  {Pioneers  and  Founders,  p.  54) :  "  Schwartz's 
facility  in  learning  languages  must  have  been  great,  for  the 
English  of  his  letter  is  excellent,  unless  his  biographer,  Dean 
Pearson,  has  altered  it.  It  is  not  at  all  like  that  of  a 
German." 

Note  36.  —  Page  184.  A  specimen  of  Schwartz's  method. 
He  is  addressing  an  assembly  of  Mohammedans  at  Trichin- 
opoly  (1770).  Two  of  them  have  been  extolling  the  merits  of 
good  works.  Our  missionary  observes  that  the  real  founda- 
tion for  the  remission  of  sins  is  Christ's  merit  and  satisfaction. 
"  We  are  sinners  and  deserve  the  wrath  of  God.  Consider  his 
pure  and  holy  nature.      The  more  we  think  of  God  and  our- 

\  selves  the  more  we  must  be  convinced  that  either  we  must 
suffer  ourselves   the   punishment   due  to  our  sins,  or  that  an- 

/  other  person  duly  qualified  must  endure  in  our  stead.  This 
/  person  is  no  other  than  Jesus  Christ.  God  has  made  him  to 
be  sin  for  us,  who  knew  no  sin ;  accepting,  out  of  infinite 
compassion,  his  atonement,  which  he  has  sufficiently  demon- 
strated by  his  resurrection.  He  is  now  the  foundation  of  all 
grace,  so  that  unless  you  seek  through  him  the  forgiveness  of 
your  sins  the  guilt  will  rest  upon  yourselves,  and  you  must 
bear  the  punishment."  As  he  approached  threescore  years 
and  ten,  writing  to  an  English  lady  Schwartz  said :  "  Many 
of  your  clergymen  make  little  of  a  redeemer.  Dr.  Price's 
[Richard  Price,  the  Arian]  book  of  sermons  was  sent  me.  I 
opened  them ;  was  shocked  at  his  doctrine ;  cut  the  book  in 
pieces  and  burned  it.  They  destroy  the  foundation  of  true 
happiness  and  true  holiness.     What  can  they  build  ? " 

Note  37.  —  Page  191.  "Ich  stehe  an  den  Pforten  der 
Ewigkeit,"  he  once  wrote  to  a  friend.  Of  the  period  from 
1780  to  1783  he  writes,  "Often  more  than  eight  hundred  of 
the  poor  and  hungry  were  standing  before  our  door." 

Note  38.  —  Page  200.  Hiittemann,  thirty-one  years ;  Cnoll, 
thirty-five  years ;  Breithaupt,  thirty-six  years ;  Gericke,  thirty- 
six  years ;  Zeglin,  forty  years ;  Pohle,  forty -one  years  ;  John, 
forty-three  years ;  Klein,  forty-four  years ;  Caramerer,  forty-six 
years;    Schwartz,    forty-eight    years;    Fabricius,   fifty    years; 


S06  APPENDIX. 

Kohlhoff  (father),  fifty-three  years;  Kohlhoff  (son,  born  in  In- 
dia), fifty-seven  years;  Rottler,  fifty-eight  years;  Kiernander, 
fifty-nine  years.  In  his  History  of  Missions,  Vol.  I,  p.  176, 
Dr.  Brown  says,  "  Schultze,  after  having  been  twenty-four 
years  in  India,  returned  to  Halle,  and  it  appears  he  lived  till 
1799,  when  he  must  probably  have  been  upwards  of  one  hun- 
dred years  old,  as  he  came  to  India  in  1719."  Schultze,  how- 
ever, died  in  1760,  aged  71. 

Note  39.  —  Page  201.  Another  monument,  at  the  expense 
of  the  East  India  Company  and  executed  by  the  sculptor 
Bacon,  was  placed  in  the  Fort  Church  at  Madras.  At  the 
same  time,  however,  the  company  would  gladly  have  ex- 
cluded Carey  from  the  neighborhood  of  Calcutta ;  but  hap- 
pily they  had  no  control  over  the  little  Danish  territory  of 
Serampore. 

Note  40.  —  Page  205.  The  financial  affairs  of  the  mission 
were  not  always  well  administered.  Such  definite  arrange- 
ments for  the  treasurership,  for  accounts  and  responsibility  in 
disbursements,  as  should  be  maintained  by  every  mission  did 
not  exist.  Hence  there  sometimes  arose  jealousies,  suspicions, 
and  accusations.  Indiscreet  expenditures  were  made,  and  in 
general  there  appears  to  have  been  a  looseness  which,  to- 
gether with  the  conflict  of  individual  opinions  upon  certain 
matters,  could  not  result  otherwise  than  in  alienations.  These 
divisions  became  deplorable  at  times,  and  were  a  scandal 
among  lookers-on,  most  of  whom  had  no  good  will  toward 
evangelistic  work. 

Note  41.  —  Page  205.  The  pecuniary  aid  afforded  by  the 
Christian  Knowledge  Society  and  the  personal  reenforcement 
for  a  short  time  of  Messrs.  Schnarre  and  Rhenius,  together 
with  a  remittance  of  eighteen  hundred  pounds  sterling  in  oi» 
year  (1816)  from  the  king  of  Denmark,  failed  to  bring  reca 
peration.  A  few  years  later  that  part  of  the  field  containing 
eleven  small  church  buildings,  with  the  property  pertaining 
thereto,  eleven  catechists,  and  thirteen  hundred  Christians, 
which  lay  within  the  province  of  Tanjore  and  was  subject  to 
England,  Cammerer  made  over  to  the  society  above  named. 


APPENDIX.  307 

Note  42.  — Page  206.  Dr.  Buchanan  remarks  (1806), 
"  Kohlhoff  stated  that  there  were  upwards  of  ten  thousand 
Protestant  Christians  belonging  to  the  Tanjore  and  Tinnevelly 
districts  alone  who  had  not  among  them  one  complete  volume 
of  the  Bible,  and  that  not  one  Christian,  perhaps,  in  a  hun- 
dred had  a  New  Testament ;  and  yet  there  are  some  copies 
of  the  Tamil  Scriptures  to  be  sold  at  Tranquebar,  but  the 
poor  natives  cannot  afford  to  purchase  them." 

Note  43.  —  Page  209.  Sherring's  Protestant  Missions,  p.  158. 
Mr.  Sherring's  later  estimate  is  five  sixths  of  the  converts  in 
the  various  missions.  See  Proceedings  of  the  London  Confer- 
ence, p.  118. 

Note  44.  —  Page  209.  It  might  be  supposed  that  Serfoge, 
the  native  prince  who  manifested  such  tearful  respect  for  his 
guardian,  Schwartz,  would  embrace  the  religion  of  his  bene- 
factor and  follow  in  the  steps  of  that  good  man.  But  a 
missionary  of  the  American  Board  wrote,  in  1828,  regarding 
him :  "  The  rajah  has  become  very  unfriendly  to  missionaries. 
He  has  yielded  himself  up  to  dissipation,  and  given  immense 
sums  to  the  Brahmins  and  to  the  temples  to  make  himself  a 
Brahmin."  —  Rev.  Mr.  Winslow,  Missionary  Herald,  Vol.  XXV, 
p.  146. 

Note  45.  — Page  222.  Hough,  III,  332.  "The  deists,  to- 
gether with  many  careless  professors  of  Christianity  among 
the  Danes,  treated  the  missionaries  and  their  instructions  with 
contempt  —  conduct  which  they  seldom  experienced  from  the 
heathen,  who,  though  unwilling  to  embrace  the  gospel,  very 
rarely  thought  of  reviling  its  doctrines  or  precepts.  Under 
the  Danish  government  the  public  servants  had  never  been 
allowed  to  molest  the  Christians;  but  unhappily  the  British 
authorities  at  Madras  had  thought  proper  to  patronize  the 
idolatries  of  the  country  in  a  way  that  was  all  but  tanta- 
mount to  identifying  themselves  with  the  worst  abominations 
of  Hindu  superstition.  The  native  officers  at  Tranquebar, 
presuming  upon  this  concession  on  the  part  of  their  new  mas- 
ters, compelled  the  poor  Christians  to  assist  at  the  heathen 
festivals  and  to  attend  their  public  ceremonies."  —  Hough,  HI, 
347-349.     "There  were,  in  truth,  no  outward  motives  to  pre- 


308  APPENDIX. 

serve  morality  of  conduct  or  even  decency  of  demeanor;  so, 
from  the  moment  of  their  landing  upon  the  shores  of  India, 
the  first  settlers  cast  off  all  those  bonds  which  had  restrained 
them  in  their  native  villages.  They  regarded  themselves  as 
privileged  beings  —  privileged  to  violate  all  the  obligations  of 
religion  and  morality  and  to  outrage  all  the  decencies  of  life. 
They  who  went  thither  were  often  desperate  adventurers, 
whom  England,  in  the  emphatic  language  of  the  Scripture, 
had  spewed  out  —  men  who  sought  those  golden  sands  of  the 
East  to  repair  their  broken  fortunes,  to  bury  in  oblivion  a 
sullied  name,  or  to  wring  with  lawless  hand  from  the  weak 
and  unsuspecting  wealth  which  they  had  not  the  character 
or  the  capacity  to  obtain  by  honest  industry  at  home.  They 
cheated;  they  gambled;  they  drank;  they  reveled  in  all  kinds 
of  debauchery.  Associates  in  vice,  linked  together  by  a  com- 
mon bond  of  rapacity,  they  still  often  pursued  one  another 
with  desperate  malice,  and,  few  though  they  were  in  num- 
bers, among  them  there  was  no  fellowship,  except  a  fellow- 
ship of  crime."  —  John  William  Kaye,  in  Christianity  in  India. 
London,  1859.    Pp.  45,  46. 

Note  46.  — Page  223.  Geisler  became  an  unbeliever  and 
opposer.  Bovingh  sided  with  enemies  of  the  mission.  Three 
—  Bosse,  Hutter,  and  Friichtenicht  —  became  intemperate. 
The  first  married  a  wife  of  the  same  habits,  and  was  dis- 
charged ;  the  last  named  became  a  brazen-faced  drunkard  and 
quarrelsome  bully,  insulting  and  threatening  his  colleagues, 
and  even  appearing  at  church  on  Christmas  in  a  state  of 
intoxication.  Hiittemann  could  write  (1779) :  "  Der  Kirche 
Jesu  ist  an  solchen  Proselyten  wie  Malabaren,  Nicobaren 
Gronlandern,  Eskimos  wenig  gelegen.  AUe  diese  Nationen 
sind  eine  Art  Affengeschlecht,  die  miissen  erst  zu  Menchen 
werden,  ehe  das  Christenthum  ihren  mit  Nutzen  gepredigt 
wird."  —  Germann's  Leben  Schwartz,  S.  289. 

Note  47.  —  Page  225.  The  list  might  be  extended  by 
inserting  the  names  which  here  follow  and  many  more  :  Sir 
Charles  Aitchison,  Sir  Charles  Barnard,  Sir  Thomas  Candy, 
Sir  Henry  Durand,  Sir  Vincent  Eyre,  Sir  Robert  Montgomery, 
Sir  Richmond  Shakespear,  Sir  Rivers  Thompson. 


APPENDIX.  309 

i 
I 

Note  48.  —  Page  225.  Mr.  Sherring  {Protestant  Missions 
in  India,  p.  28)  and  otliers  are  mistaken  in  placing  Calcutta 
on  the  list  of  the  Danish  missions.  Kiernander,  a  Swede  by 
birth,  was,  even  at  Cuddalore,  and  not  less  at  Calcutta  (1758), 
entirely  under  the  direction  of  the  English  Christian  Knowl- 
edge Society,  and  for  a  time  was  supported  by  the  same. 
After  marrying  a  rich  widow  he  no  longer  required  aid  from 
that  source,  but  lived  in  a  showy  and  luxurious  style  till 
pecuniary  reverses  necessitated  a  change. 

Note  49.  —  Page  228.  In  1708  a  public  disputation,  "  De 
Pseudo-Apostolis,"  was  held  at  Wittenberg,  under  the  presi- 
dency of  Dr.  Neumann,  in  which  it  was  more  than  intimated 
that  Ziegenbalg  and  Pliitschau  were  false  apostles  and  would 
do  mischief  in  Tranquebar. 

Note  60.  —  Page  235.  Such  timber  as  is  found  comes 
for  the  most  part  from  Siberia,  carried  down  by  a  current 
between  Spitzbergen  and  the  east  coast  of  Greenland  to  Cape 
Farewell,  thence  it  drifts  upward  along  the  west  coast,  and 
by  winds  and  currents  is  carried  ashore  even  as  far  north  as 
Holsteinberg.  —  Graak's  Expedition,  p.  24. 

Note  61.  —  Page  238.  Bishop  Krog  appears  to  have  been 
as  little  acquainted  with  the  true  missionary  spirit  as  with 
geography.  He  persistently  opposed  Thomas  von  Westen,  who 
showed  such  laudable  zeal  in  behalf  of  tlie  Finns.  See  Vorm- 
baum's  von  Westen.  Nor  was  he  wholly  peculiar  in  his  geo- 
graphical conceptions.  Archbishop  Lorenzana,  quoted  in  Pres- 
cott's  Mexico,  I,  p.  4  (note),  says,  "  It  is  doubtful  if  the  country 
of  New  Spain  does  not  border  on  Tartary  and  Greenland  —  by 
way  of  California  on  the  former,  and  by  New  Mexico  on  the 
latter." 

Note  62.  —  Page  250.  Reenforcements  were  sent  out  — 
in  1723  Albert  Top,  whose  health  broke  down,  and  who  after 
four  years  was  obliged  to  return  home ;  in  1728  two  col- 
leagues, Olaus  Lange  and  Henry  Milzorg;  in  1731  a  Mr.  01m- 
sorg.  But  Paul  Egede,  the  eldest  son  of  the  missionary,  ren- 
dered far  more  efficient  service  than  any  other  one.  Indeed, 
from  twelve  years  of   age  onward  he  was  his  father's   assist- 


310  APPENDIX. 

ant.  He  studied  four  years  at  Copenhagen,  and  returned 
(1735)  as  missionary  of  a  colony  planted  at  Disco.  After- 
wards he  presided  over  the  station  at  Christian's  Hope  till 
1740,  when  he  removed  to  Copenhagen,  there  becoming  a 
member  of  the  College  of  Missions,  director  of  the  Hospital 
for  Orphans,  and  at  length  Bishop  of  Greenland.  He  con- 
tinued indefatigable  in  his  efforts  to  promote  the  welfare  of 
the  enterprise ;  published  a  Greenland  grammar  in  Danish 
and  Latin ;  a  dictionary  in  the  same  manner ;  a  translation 
into  Eskimo  of  the  New  Testament  and  portions  of  the  Old, 
as  well  as  Thomas  a  Kempis'  Imitation  of  Christ  and  several 
Danish  prayers  and  liturgies.  He  also  prepared  a  work  en- 
titled Information  on  Greenland,  which  is  one  of  the  treasures 
of  Danish  literature.  He  died  in  Denmark,  1789,  at  the  age 
of  eighty-one. 

Note  53.  —  Page  282.  In  earlier  days  very  few  except 
uneducated  laborers  were  sent  out.  Afterwards  there  was 
occasionally  a  scholarly  man,  and  in  recent  years  there  has 
been  an  increasing  number  of  well-educated  men.  At  Niesky, 
in  Silesia,  there  is  now  a  training  institution,  established  in 
1869.  A  glance  at  the  literary  labors  of  missionaries  in 
Greenland,  Labrador,  among  the  Indians  of  North,  Central, 
and  South  America,  South  Africa,  and  Thibet  shows  that  they 
have  made  very  important  contributions  to  various  vernacu- 
lars. See  The  Literary  Works  of  the  Foreign  Missionaries  of  the 
Moravian  Church,  by  the  Rev.  G.  Reichel,  of  Herrnhut,  Saxony, 
translated  and  annotated  by  Bishop  Edmund  De  Schweinitz. 

Note  54.  —  Page  283.  In  the  course  of  the  first  fifty 
years  one  hundred  and  sixty  missionaries  died  in  the  West 
Indies.  During  the  first  year  of  labor  in  Surinam  thirty-nine 
missionaries  and  twenty-one  wives  of  missionaries  died. 

Note  55.  —  Page  286.  A  savage  Indian  entered  the  hul 
of  the  faithful  Moravian,  Mack,  near  what  is  now  Newtown, 
Fairfield  County,  Connecticut,  and  said  to  unfaithful  English 
colonists  there,  "  You  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  yourselves,  to 
have  been  so  long  among  us  and  never  to  have  told  us  any- 
thing of  what  we  hear  from  this  man." 


INDEX. 


ABYSSnnA,  16,  17,  263,  293. 
Acquiring  vernaculars,  303-304. 
Adaptation  of  Christianity,  276. 
Adolphus,  Gustavus,  13,  14. 
AUeine,  Joseph,  43. 
Alva,  Duke,  23,  24. 
Ainboyna,  28. 
Anglo-Saxons,  149. 
Arctic  regions,  233-236,  255. 
Augustine,  126. 

Bach,  87. 

Ball's  River,  244. 

Batavia,  30,  37. 

Bancroft,  Bishop,  47. 

Banyan  tree,  158. 

Barber,  Jonathan,  111. 

Baxter,  R.,  79,  80. 

Bede,  65. 

Beers,  Mrs.  E.  Eliot,  298. 

Berge7i,241,  242,  247. 

Beveridge,  Bishop,  125. 

Bible  Society,  British  and  Foreign, 

14. 
Bible  translations,  170. 
Boles,  John,  11. 
Bogatskv,  179. 
Boston,  70,  297. 
Bbnisch,  Frederick,  87. 
Bourne,  Joseph,  93. 
Bovingh,  166. 

Bowen,  Henry  C,  110,  299. 
Boyle,  Robert,  45,  52, 126. 
Brainerd,  David,  283,  300-303. 
Branford,  110. 
Brant,  114. 
Brazil,  9, 12. 
Brotherton,  114. 
Banyan,  122. 
Burr,  President,  122, 127. 

Calvik,  John,  10. 
Campanius,  15. 
Candidius,  George,  39. 
Came,  62. 
Camatic,  188. 
Caste.  193-195,  211-213. 
Celebes,  36. 


Celibacy,  195-196. 

Chalmers,  Dr.,  118. 

Chapel  built,  163. 

Charles  V,  10,  23. 

Charles  XII,  241. 

Charters,  50. 

Christian  VI,  248. 

Christian  laymen,  224-225,  308. 

Christian  loyalty,  273-275. 

Christians,  nominal,  164. 

Civilization,  251. 

Clap,  President,  122. 

Climate  of  New  England,  60. 

Clive,  174,  181. 

Coincidences,  279. 

Coligny,  9. 

Colonial  evangelism,  49. 

Colonial  labors,  264-265. 

Columbus,  60,  243. 

Conference  of  1888,  4. 

Constance,  261-2G2. 

Conversion  of  Europeans,  229-232. 

Conversion  of  Indians,  68. 

Converts,  Indian,  138-143. 

Copenhagen,  154,  156. 

Cotton,  John   91,95. 

Cotton,  Josiah,  94. 

Cotton,  Rowland,  93. 

Cowper,  126. 

Coxinga,  30. 

Cromwell,  41,  44. 

Crossweeksung,  132. 

Cutshamakin,  61. 

Danes  in  India,  151, 169-161,  167. 
Danforth,  Samuel,  96. 
Dankaerts,  28. 
Dartmouth  College,  113. 
Dartmouth,  Earl,  112. 
Davenport,  James,  126. 
Delaware  Indians,  129, 131, 133. 
Denmark,  148-152,  160,  204,  226-227, 

259. 
Dickinson,  Jonathan,  127. 
Discipline,  262. 
Diversities,  219-220. 
Dober,  Leonard,  278. 
Dutch,  11,  264-265. 

(311) 


312 


INDEX. 


Dutch  East  India  Company,  264. 
Dutch  societies,  35. 

East  Indies,  26,  35. 

Eastham,  94. 

Eckhart,  123. 

Edgartown,  83,  85. 

Edwards,   Jonathan,   101-103,   122, 

124-125.  147. 
Edwards,  Jonathan,  Jr.,  103. 
Egede,  Gertrude,  239,  246-249. 
Egede,  Hans,  236-260,  266. 
Egede,  Paul,  309-310. 
Eliot,  C.  W.,  298. 
Eliot,  John,  15,  52-81,  110,  155,  263, 

294-298. 
Eliot,  Jared,  298. 
Eliot,  Joseph,  298. 
Elizabeth  Islands,  83. 
England,  169,  180-181,  228-229. 
English  intolerance,  42. 
English  Reformation,  40. 
Erasmus,  6. 
Eschatology,  8. 
Eskimos,  244,  263. 

Famine,  219. 

Fidelity,  284. 

Finland,  13. 

Finley,  Rev.  Samuel,  121. 

Fitch,  James,  111. 

Formosa,  ,30.  37,  293. 

Fox,  George,  126. 

Francke,  A.  H..  154,  160, 177. 

Frederick  IV,  150-151,  155,  164,  242. 

Frederick  the  Great,  175,  177. 

Frederick  William  I,  268. 

Frobisher,  43. 

Gayhead,  84,  92. 
Geekie,  Dr.,  78,  80,  256. 
Gellert,  126,  175. 
George  I,  228. 
Gleim,  176. 
Gobat,  Bishop,  17. 
Gookin,  Daniel,  96, 110. 
Gookin,  General,  95,  296-297. 
Government  neutrality,  38. 
<ireenland.  235,  260. 
Grotius,  29,  45. 
Griindler,  165. 
Guiana,  31. 

Hall,  Gordon,  131, 174. 
Halle,  152-153. 
Halleck,  Fitz-Greene,  298. 
Hawley,  Gideon,  93,  103. 
Hober,  188. 
Heligolnnd,  156. 
Henry  VIII,  41. 
Herrnhut,  262,  266,  270,  277. 
Heroism,  264. 


Heurnius,  J.,  27. 
Heyling,  Peter,  15-lT. 
Hiacomes,  85,  89,  299. 
Hilarion,  117. 
Hiller,  179. 
Holden,  Samuel,  99. 
IIold-with-Hope,  248. 
Holland,  22,  26,  264-265. 
Hollis,  Isaac,  99. 
Hooker,  Thomas,  53,  106. 
Hoole,  Rev.  Mr.,  195. 
Hopkins,  Mark,  100. 
Hopkins,  Samuel,  120. 
Hornhonius,  31. 
Horton,  Azariah,  127, 131. 
Huntington,  Mrs.  Susan,  298. 
Hubs,  John,  261,288. 
Hyde,  Thomas,  44,  46. 
Hyder,  Ali,  188,  190,  217. 

India,  30, 157-159, 171. 
Indians,  52. 

Indian  churches,  69-71. 
Indian  converts,  87-91,  299. 
Indian  decadence,  78. 
Inilian  industry,  62. 
Indian  language,  55. 
Indian  outrages,  75-76. 
Indians  wronged,  74-75. 
Individual  movements,  42. 
Innuit,  245. 
Isenberg,  17. 

James  I,  41, 46. 
Java,  26,  36. 
Jerome,  65, 117. 
John.  O.  F.,  212. 
Jordan,  Polycarp,  166. 
Judson,  A.  H.,  174. 
Junius,  R.,  30. 

KA0NAUMEEK,  128. 

Kiernander,  309. 

Klopstock.  176. 

Kohlhoff.  193. 

Krapf ,  17. 

Krog,  Bishop,  238-239,  309. 

Lake,  Dr.,  44. 
Lapland,  13, 14. 
Laud,  Archbishop,  47. 
Lessing,  175. 
Linner,  Martin,  280. 
Literature,  Christian,  225-226. 
Longevity  of  missionaries,  306. 
Lorenzana,  Archbishop,  309. 
Loyalty  to  Christ,  271-273. 
Liitkin's,  Dr.,  152,  227. 
Luther,  7,  9,  65,  183. 

Macaulay,  Lord,  207. 
Malcolm,  Howard,  207. 


INDEX. 


313 


Mannmet,  95. 
Maisden,  118. 
Marshall,  172. 
Marshpee,  93. 

Martha's  Vineyard.  83,  84,  88,  299. 
Martyii,  Henry,  118. 
Massachusetts  Colony,  51. 
Mather,  Cotton,  172,  301. 
Mather,  Increase.  81. 
Maurice,  John,  31,  32. 
Maximilian,  6. 
Mayhew,  Experience,  86,  88. 
Mayhew,  John,  86, 174. 
Mayhew,  Jonathan,  209. 
Mayhew,  Tliomas,  83-84,  88. 
Mayhew,  Thomas,  Jr.,  83-84,  85. 
Mayhew,  Zechariah,  87-88. 
Mercenary  motives,  33-35. 
Michaelis,  176. 
Mills,  S.  J.,  174. 
Mission  dechne,  204-207. 
Mission  press,  303. 
Mission  schools,  214. 
Mission  stations,  new,  225. 
Missionary  college,  28. 
Missionary  mistakes,  4. 
Missionary  mortality,  310. 
Mitchell,  JElisha,  298. 
Mohammedanism,  38. 
Mohegans,  111,  114. 
Moor,  Joshua,  113. 
Moravians,  111,  264,  270-281. 
Moravian  literature.  310. 
Motive  power,  271-273. 
Mumford,  Hannah,  298. 

Nantucket,  83, 92. 

Narragansets,  106. 

Natick,  61,70,  71. 

New  England  churches,  265. 

New  Stockbridge,  104-105. 

New  Sweden,  15. 

Niantice,  108-109. 

Niles,  Samuel,  109. 

Ninigret,  109. 

Nipmuck  country,  110. 

Nitschmann,  David,  280. 

Nominal   Christians,  221-224,  307- 

308. 
Nonautum,  59,  61. 
Northmen,  149. 
Norway,  237. 
Norwich,  111. 

OccoM,  Samson,  104, 112-115. 
Olaf,  13. 
Ormuz,  3. 

Oxenbridge,  John,  43. 
Oxenstiern,  15. 

Pahk,  Joseph,  108, 
Parliament  petitioned,  44. 


Parsons,  Levi.  118. 

Pastorate,  native,  213-214. 

Paul,  Mcses,  115. 

Persecution,  218. 

Philip  of  Narraganset,  61,  74. 

Philip  II,  10,  23. 

Pierson,  Abraham,  110. 

Pietism,  268-269. 

Pilgrims  and  Puritans,  62,  262. 

Plutschau,  152,  154,  160, 168. 

Plymouth,  95. 

Pocock.  Edward,  45. 

Portuguest*,  26,  161. 

Prayer,  297. 

"  Praying  Indians,"  70,  74. 

Preaching  Christ,  184. 

Prideaux,  Dean,  45. 

Prison,  165. 

Propaganda,  29. 

Pulicat,  31. 

Pulsnitz,  153. 

QoiNCY,  JosiAH,  298. 

Randulf,  Bishop,  238. 
Rationalism,  268. 
Rauch,  Christian  Henry,  111. 
Rawson,  Grindall,  96. 
Reflex  results,  226. 
Reformation  period,  5. 
Relations  vague,  203. 
Reproach  for  neglect,  310. 
Rhenish  Missionary  Society,  37. 
Rhode  Island,  106. 
Roman  Catholics,  218. 
Roxbury,  .56. 
Rutherford,  125. 
Ryland,  Dr.,  117. 

Sandwich,  94. 

Saying,  not  doing,  282. 

Scatticokes,  112. 

Schultze,  176.  181-182. 

Schwartz,  C.  F.,  176-204,  304. 

Secular  motives,  208-210, 

Semler,  176. 

Separatists,  125 

Serfogee,  192,  307. 

Sergeant,  John,  97-100, 128,  300. 

Sergeant,  John,  Jr.,  104. 

Seringhani,  187. 

Service,  brief,  32. 

Sewall,  Samuel,  105. 

Side  pursuits,  215-216. 

Sifting  period.  291. 

Simons,  James,  109. 

Skroellings,  244. 

Small  causes,  275-288. 

Smallpox,  249 

Societies  in  United  States,  48. 

Spiritual  results,  250,  252, 

State  relations,  220-221. 


314 


INDEX. 


St.  Chrischona,  17. 
Stockbridge,  97-101. 
Stolberg.  Countess,  281. 
Strong.  Job,  140. 
Superficiality,  33,  208-210. 
Surinam,  20. 
Sweden,  12. 
Sweden  borg,  186. 

Tackawompbait,  78, 109. 
Tamil,  170. 
Tanjore,  167, 186, 190. 
Tawanquatuck,  89,  90. 
Tenison,  Arclibishop,  46. 
Tennent,  William,  140. 
Ten  tribes,  57. 
Tersteegen,  179. 
Thatcher,  Peter,  96. 
Tholuck,  Professor,  118,  300. 
Thompson,  William,  109. 
Tinnevelly,  185. 
Tisbury,  86,  91. 
Torrey,  Josiah,  91. 
Tranquebar,  156. 159,  204,  205. 
Treat,  Samuel,  94. 
Trichinopoly,  186-187,  196,  203. 
Tuljajee,  191. 
Tupper,  Thomas,  94. 
Tyerman  and  Beunet,  206. 

Ulfilas,  192. 

Unworthy  missionaries,  308. 
Ursinus,  19. 
UsefalnesB,  258. 


Vaagen,  2.36. 
Vanderkemp,  35. 
Vans  Kenneday,  223. 
Vernaculars,  33. 
Villegagnon,  10-12. 
Voltaire,  270. 
Von  der  Linde,  154. 
Von  Welz,  17-19. 

Waban,  61. 

Wake,  Archdeacon,  228. 
WalsBus,  28. 
Waldo,  Peter,  65. 
Wales,  Prince  of,  99. 
Wampanoags,  106. 
Warneck,  9,  77. 
Watts,  Isaac,  98. 
Wesleyanism,  271. 
West,  Stephen,  104. 
Westerly,  108. 

Wbeelock,  Eleazer,  112-114. 
William  the  Silent,  25. 
Williams,  Roger,  106-108. 
Wiswall^  Samuel,  92. 
Woodbridge,  Timothy,  99. 

YONGE,  C.  M.,  70. 

Zeisbeeger,  88. 

Ziegenbalg,  152,  160,   162,  164-174, 

188,  228,  309. 
Zinzendorf,  20,  267-269,  281. 


Date  Due 

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